Something very odd is going down at Salford City Council over its decision to include Swinton Park Golf Club as an Asset of Community Value.
32 people from the community signed an original application arguing the Club should be listed as it 'furthers the social interests of the community'; and once a site is listed as an Asset of Community Value, there is a Community Right to Bid, which gives residents six months to determine if they can raise the finance to purchase the asset...
...Which is important as developers are currently trying to purchase the Club from its current owners for housing, with the latest £10million 'unconditional' bid coming from a subsid of Your Housing called Nuvu.
The owners of the Club are challenging the original decision to include the site as an Asset of Community Value as they believe, a public meeting heard last week, that it was established after the agreement with Your Housing was in place and therefore is irrelevant to the deal.
A new Salford Council report, to be considered next week, states that "On the 25th November 2019 the City Mayor made the decision to include Swinton Park Golf Course as an asset of Community Value. This came into force on the 2nd December 2019.
"The owner of the golf course, through their solicitors have challenged that decision
and have sought a review of the Council's decision under the Act" it adds "Whilst the Council's legal advice is that the original decision and communication of that decision is valid, this application has been submitted to ensure that the Golf Course remains listed as an Asset of Community in the event that the original decision/communication is not found to be valid...."
The Salford Star understands that the Club and developer are arguing that they had an agreement on 26th November, before the decision came into force on 2nd December, and that the original report didn't cite Swinton Park Golf and Country Club 2017 Ltd, only Swinton Park Golf and Country Club.
This latest application has come from local councillors, rather than the Save Swinton Park Golf Club campaign, meaning that the campaign will not have to be statutorily consulted on any bids.
The Council report adds that "Given the uncertainty regarding the club at present and that an option agreement has been entered into regarding the unconditional sale of the club it is intended that the decision of the City Mayor will come into immediate effect with the Chair of the relevant scrutiny committee agreeing that the usual 5 day call in period before the decision comes into effect can be waived on this occasion..."
Cock up? Or cover up? Or neither? Time and a bunch of solicitors will tell...
For a full background see previous Salford Star article on last week's public meeting click here
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