COUNCIL assets could be transferred over to community groups under new proposals.
If approved the move would protect buildings and facilities at Lichfield District Council from being repurposed or developed in the future, as they would be owned and managed by the community.
A report to a meeting of the local authority’s cabinet has suggested the use of community asset transfers in a bid to safeguard local assets in the wake of upcoming local government reorganisation.
It explained:
“There is greater concern over the looming local government reorganisation and desire to ensure, whatever the outcome of that activity, that important local assets remain available to community organisations for purposes that benefit the communities they serve, where such activities represent good value to the taxpayer.”
Decisions on whether to make an asset transfer will be made on the basis of 14 criteria, including whether they provide a benefit to the community, supports the aims of the council and the value it holds.
A wide range of organisations could be eligible to apply for a transfer including clubs and community organisations or parish councils.
The report added:
“There are many potential benefits to this approach, pre-eminent among them is the opportunity to protect our open spaces, historic buildings, sports clubs and other assets from potential future development.
“With local government reorganisation there is a genuine risk that the future of land and property of community and social value may cease to be determined locally when the council becomes part of a larger authority covering a wider geography.
“Most councils consider community asset transfer as a response to recurrent, challenging spending review settlements and a need to consider asset transfer as an enabler to achieve financial efficiencies. For Lichfield District Council, the picture is different.
“The council is in a strong financial position today, albeit there is some uncertainty over the final years of the Medium Term Financial Strategy with ‘known unknowns’ in relation to the content of a promised multi-year settlement from Government.”
The cabinet is set to meet on 23rd June to debate the report.
In the private sector, this would be described as asset stripping!
Goodness me! Could this turn into another debacle by LDC? With their record, It doesn’t bear thinking about.
@J Smith – Absolutely not asset stripping — it’s asset safeguarding. The proposal is to put valued local spaces into trusted community hands to protect them from being lost in any future reorganisation, not to make a quick buck.
Were we not told that the council was safeguarding the old library building?
From memory, it was donated to the people of Lichfield, and the council found a way to sell it to become apartments.
The reorganisation will mean loss of local democracy, loss of jobs, asset extraction by private firms on contract, (they take precedence for payment), all sold as staving off S114. I have yet to see any justification for flogging off the council silver, which this will turn out to be.
It’s encouraging to see this proactive thinking around protecting community assets ahead of local government reorganisation. One question: does this approach only apply to District Council owned assets or could it also include important community facilities owned by the County Council or by educational bodies?
For example, there are some well used sports centres and shared use school facilities across the district that serve a large number of community groups. It would be great to understand if similar protections or partnerships could be explored for those too.
Is this the first known time that District Councillors have had an idea which could actually benefit local organisations, groups and people; the first time that they have thought about benefitting us? If so, we should have put forward the idea of abolishing them years ago, Lichfield would have been a far better place and the old library would have been a welcome local asset for all of us, not to mention the Tempest/Birmingham Road site and other sites turned into flats and retirement homes as well as building on our open spaces. Perhaps we might now even keep our bus station safely where it is!
One major asset that desperately needs protecting is the bus station, and that’s even before the local government reorganisation. I would strongly back transferring that to a community group with the aim of preventing it from being sold off for development. It’s just a shame it’s too late to save the multi-storey car park.