The Council has confirmed that a proposal, submitted earlier in the year by the CVS, to lease and improve Oliver House, proved not to be financially viable.
New terms are now being renegotiated with the expectation that a report will be considered at a meeting in December.
The property has been empty for 18 months and sits on a prime site which could generate a major capital receipt for the local taxpayer.
Conversion of residential sites like these to offices is very short-sighted.
The Council would be wiser to sell the site for development as housing and use the receipt to provide offices in a cheaper – possibly sub-urban – location.
This would have the additional advantage of regenerating one of our run down local high streets.
At a recent Council meeting Westfield Cllr Lynn Jeffries posed the following question to the responsible Cabinet member;