SALFORD TOWN HALL FLOGGED OFF FOR JUST £256,000 - Salford Star

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SALFORD TOWN HALL FLOGGED OFF FOR JUST £256,000

Star date: 24th March 2014

SALFORD BEXLEY SQUARE TOWN HALL FLOGGED OFF FOR PEANUTS AS X1 DEVELOPMENTS STAND TO MAKE £MILLIONS

Salford's old Town Hall at Bexley Square, previously the Magistrates Court, has been flogged off to X1 Developments for just £256,000 – and now, almost one hundred one and two bedroom apartments in the complex are being marketed to buy to let landlords and `young professionals' for up to £120,000 each.

To add insult to financial injury, our former Town Hall has been retitled X1 Town Hall, Manchester.

Full details here…

click image to enlarge

At the end of November, the Salford Star revealed how `Developers are taking the piss in Salford' and used the example of the Grade II listed old Salford Town Hall to illustrate the point (see article – click here).

The city's old Town Hall on Bexley Square, previously Salford Magistrates Court, is being converted into 122 apartments by Liverpool's X1 Developments. Normally, to build such a complex the developers would have to pay Salford City Council around £300,000 in planning payments for infrastructure, construction training, open space, climate change and more…

…but X1 put in a `viability assessment' stating it couldn't afford such payments, and that if it had to hand over such a sum it would `threaten' the development. Salford Council officers agreed… "The expert assessment of the appraisal is that there is insufficient profit in the development to warrant the requirement of an obligation to be entered into".

Instead, X1 agreed to make a contribution of just £50,000 which the planning report stated "could possibly be used to provide gas lamps to the public realm in the local area and to reinstate the roll of honour that was removed from the building some time ago".

The Salford Star can now reveal that, according to the latest Salford Council financial report, the old Town Hall was flogged off to X1 for just £256,000. And X1 has starting selling 93 one bedroom flats and six two bedroom flats for up to £120,000 each. These flats alone will rake in almost £8million, and then there are 23 penthouse apartments which aren't on the open market yet.

X1 would argue, we're sure, that there is the cost of converting the building into flats to come off these payments, but for an initial cost of just over £300,000 to Salford Council, the developer stands to make millions of pounds off the back of Salford's unique heritage. Even the car park spaces, sold to X1 for £80,000 by the Council, are being flogged for £10,000 each, which will also bring in a hefty profit.

The flats are currently being pushed by X1 partner, Knight Knox International, to buy-to-let landlords "With the developer offering an assured rental yield of 6% for the first five years", promising residents a "high-end lifestyle at affordable prices".

The old Salford Town Hall, scene of the Battle of Bexley Square and current traditional May Day rallies in Salford, has also been re-titled X1 Town Hall, Manchester on the X1 website, while Knight Knox drools "X1 Town Hall is located in a highly desirable area of Manchester"…

Yet more insults on top of financial injury for Salford people…

See also previous Salford Star article Bexley Square Town Hall Horror as Heritage Disappears – click here

UPDATE AND CORRECTION: 25th March

Councillor John Merry - the only person on the Council with the guts to communicate with the Salford Star - has been in touch via Twitter to say that the figure quoted of £256,000 is only the receipt that Salford Council received. Another payment was made to the Ministry of Justice. The actual sale of the old Town Hall was £800,000 - still way low considering the profits that will be made by X1. And that £50,000 gas lamps payment remains as the sole `infrastructure' contribution to Council.

There is also the little matter of a bill owed by Salford Council to the Ministry of Justice for the old Town Hall, totalling £578,468 dating back to 2010 (see previous Salford Star article - click here). Did this ever get paid?

Awal wrote
at 12:17:41 on 28 March 2014

the gov should develop it themselves and the profit could have gone into treasury. Though we needed the money? To think higher uppers have common sense.

Denise Clarke wrote
at 23:08:45 on 27 March 2014

Good God you could buy a 3 bedroom house for that much..they've a vast and beautiful building with so much architecture they will ruin...they need to repay salford a % pf their sales!

Gloria Egan wrote
at 06:37:36 on 27 March 2014

Yet again Manchester is trying to take over Salford with the help of our supposed Councillors - who are these cloaked figures who come in the night like thieves and steal our name and treasured possessions - time for it to stop - catch and berate them or worse. Leave Salford for the Salford people.

slurp wrote
at 06:37:31 on 27 March 2014

#Brian F Kirkham As far as i can remember the boundary proposals attracted little interest at the time in Worsley and Irlam. Certainly in Worsley the creation of a Swinton seat in place didn't seem to cause much concern and there was no interest in the fate of the Salford seat. As to addresses the convention for most people in Worsley,Swinton,Eccles and Irlam has been to include Manchester as part of it from even before the new City of Salford came into existence. I think this just reflects the practical reality of the situation as seen from these districts.

Alice Searle wrote
at 17:20:43 on 26 March 2014

I am sad about the sale of the old Town Hall and I leave it to others to express their anger and disappointment. What I want to emphasize is that Bexley Square is still OURS. It must always remain the meeting place for protest and disagreement with authorities, which betray our human rights. Let us remember why there is a plaque on the building and why, in October 1931, the unemployed of Salford gathered there to ask for justice. We must not allow it to become, like the BBC Media City forecourt, a privately owned space [guess who...Peel of course] where one can be turned off and arrested for trespass. Maybe our laud voices will irritate the incoming residents but so be it. Our voices must be heard and for Salford residents Bexley Square must always be the place for this.

Joe Oneill wrote
at 17:20:31 on 26 March 2014

The site was in a prime location and could have fetched far more than the figures we have seen, short termism by an inept council. Land values are rising along with property values the only people to gain are the speculators picking up cut price bargains. How many times have we seen these people spout the project would not be viable if they where to put in section 106 monies and get away with a pittance in payments the same for affordable housing and the people who loose out? Salford residents. This deal should bring plenty of smiling faces none on the council.

kenneth mckelvey wrote
at 17:20:12 on 26 March 2014

The article that Si wrote about the damage done to propertys,It is easily stopped by Boarding up and securing it properly. Some times this New Labour Tory Council ignore the security compleatly Also getting the roof removed like the Nelson Pub on Chapel St. The weather will do that much damage to the lovely Buildings they have no alternative but to demolish them It is Vandalism by Stealth This Council has been doing it foryears a old building so

kenneth mckelvey wrote
at 17:20:01 on 26 March 2014

SCAMMY has stated we must have fracking by next year to make us independent of Russia for Gas/ We were self sufficient in Gas And Oil. Maggie sold it to France @+Germany? IS that why we have got to have poisioness Fracking?And they dont have to have it This Government not fit to run a Pawn Shop

??? wrote
at 14:47:14 on 25 March 2014

Why are this pathetic and incompetent clowncil once again shafting the people of Salford by selling assets off at less than the best price ? The clowncil should be getting the best price , not giving assets away to their rich big business parasite chums . Salford Clowncil are a disgrace .

Contradiction wrote
at 14:47:10 on 25 March 2014

This article is moaning that council sold off the building too cheaply...i.e. they should have kept it and helped develop it to make more money, yet in an article a few days a go you are saying the council are risking money by investing in the "ugly sisters" buildings. Make up your minds, please.

UoS wrote
at 06:02:50 on 25 March 2014

@"Si" - you have rather answered your own criticisms. The Old Town Hall is a beautiful building which, until recently, was owned by the community. As a City, Salford is not known for its beautiful buildings, so this was especially rare. The question the Council are required (by law!) to consider, is what is best for the community of people they are called upon to represent? Flogging off heritage at what seem to me to be exceptionally low prices seems not to be in the interests of the community. What have we gotten in return? £250k plus a pledge to spend a bit of money on gas lamps, one assumes with all of the hypothecated future gains going into private hands. I am not averse to allowing the private development of otherwise derelict beautiful buildings but the people of Salford's elected representatives appear to have sold them down the swanny here. They are offering up the accumulated heritage of the community for peanuts in order to nurture their vanity projects.

Brian F Kirkham wrote
at 06:02:33 on 25 March 2014

If someone at the council could pass on X1s office in the city (if they have one) - i'd be happy to forward them a map...of course when four out of five areas of "Salford" are calling themselves "Manchester" - aided and abetted by developers marketing teams and the local news I begin to think this particular battle is going to be lost - unless of course the seats of Westminster go under the scope again (for political gain) - Then watch as councillors from Worsley to Irlam run around with "Save Salford!" Banners - anybody see the Irony?

life is loud wrote
at 16:42:07 on 24 March 2014

Disgusting sold off for next to nothing

mary ferrer wrote
at 16:42:02 on 24 March 2014

Reading this,you would think Salford Council were that well off it can give away our heritage. Whoever allowed this to happen can't be very business minded. And with regards to the GAS LAMPS,Salford council are removing them at this moment in time from across the city,here in Claremont we lost 4 on King street,one was within the conservation area. When I asked an officer,why they had been removed to make way for the new lighting,and why they couldn't have been left, i was told they were ( STREET CLUTTER )????????? So why are the council now going to let other parts of the city have them.

Joe O'Neill wrote
at 16:41:57 on 24 March 2014

it was allowed to happen because Salford Residents voted out of the city any viable opposition to labour and Gave Stewart and his disciples full control of the Mad house any more questions call me!!!

George Wode wrote
at 16:41:50 on 24 March 2014

More proof that the Town Hall Mafia are the pathetic puppets of Big Business.

si wrote
at 16:41:17 on 24 March 2014

Has nobody bothered to think about what happens when any beautiful building is left empty for a short amount of time,gypos move in, strip them of lead, copper and any value at all, then more little worthless shits move in and set it on fire, thus meanind the building is unfit and needs to be knocked down, cancelling and listing on the building and making it worth even less. I am a normal working person and reading some of the arguments on this site totally amaze me. I'm all for the greater good but people just seem to pick at anything they can to find problems with. This would have been an amazing site in the industrial age when there was smoke pumping out everywhere, kids worked in factories and were regularly injured or killed, the poor died at much younger ages as they couldn't get any treatment. now the main issues seem to be a developer has bought a disused (and very nice) building and may develop it for a profit, hopefully before squatters move in and destroy it! get a f*cking grip.

UoS wrote
at 10:53:21 on 24 March 2014

How on earth was this allowed to happen!?

heather wrote
at 10:51:58 on 24 March 2014

This is disgusting and smacks of corruption. We need a revolution in Salfod again.

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