9 October 2017

Plans for the Fern Room - 11 October 2017 from 16:30 to 20:00

As it happens Mr Mustard was at the meeting of the Cabinet Resources Committee on 4 April 2012 when this property was agreed to be sold.

What do we see here? Firstly, the property was sold for the sole purpose of extending the Spires Shopping Centre. That is not now happening on this site.

Secondly, an offer was refused from a private developer and since that time, the ownership of the Spires itself having changed, this plot was offered to the highest bidder. If Barnet Council had put the plot up for sale to developers Mr Mustard thinks they would have got a better price, a monopoly buyer won't overpay.

The Land Registry tell me that property was sold on 23 May 17 for £1,100,000 so someone thinks they can squeeze enough properties onto the site to make a profit.

Mr Mustard couldn't find the sale price form 2012 and he wonders if anyone at the council thought to include a clawback clause to recover any future gains from change of use? Why the council sold it in the first place and didn't use it to build social housing is a question that occurs to Mr Mustard.

The other question is why the developers need a big PR firm to present an exhibition for what should be a sympathetic build, perhaps that tells us that some egregious & hideous looking over-development is planning. Mr Mustard predicts another featureless rectangular flat roofed block.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

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