Council apologises over £550,000 land sale and vows to help Shrewsbury community reclaim green space
A council has issued an unreserved apology over the £550,000 sale of green space for housing, and has vowed to help return it to the community.
Shrewsbury Town Council said sorry over the sale of part of Greenfields Recreation Ground to CSE Developments in 2017 for 15 new homes to be built.
Campaigners from Greenfields Community Group launched a battle which has so far lasted four years, and is due to end up in the Supreme Court in December this year.
Shrewsbury Town Council commissioned an independent report into the sale, which found that the land should have been reserved for community use and shouldn't have been sold.
Around 80 people were in the audience at Theatre Severn tonight for a meeting in which Michael Redfern QC, the man who carried out the inquiry, described feeling "a certain vibration" from councillors and "a temperature" from campaigners.
The town council unanimously agreed to the recommendation to accept the findings of the Redfern Report, and in doing so "unreservedly" apologised to the residents of Greenfields, members of the GCG and the wider Shrewsbury community for the council's failure to properly identify the legal status of the land, and for failures to adequately communicate and consult with them.
Mr Redfern, who previously has led the inquiry into the Alder Hey Children's Hospital organs scandal, urged the campaigners and the council to try and come to an agreement to avoid "huge" legal fees that can run into the hundreds of thousands.
He told the meeting that he had an interest in the case as he had spent holidays with family as a young boy in nearby Percy Street, and used to play football on the recreation ground.
He also insisted that CSE Developments was "an innocent party" which did not know about the complex history and legal status of the land, and that the company had been "subjected to abuse which must stop" over the conflict.
Mr Redfern also said his investigation found "no criminality" involved on the town council's part, and that the health and wellbeing of some staff and members had suffered due to stress over the row.
The council's apology caught campaigners by surprise, and the group will now discuss what they should do next as it considers mediation. The group were in attendance expecting to simply have the opportunity to address the council face to face over the issue for the first time in five years.
Campaigner Alyson Lanning said that the town council had committed an "unbelievable dereliction of duty" in selling the land, and said the group had to find £60,000 for the ongoing legal fight. She also pointed out that the land status was publicly available, and criticised the council for its failure to communicate with the group.
Councillor Mosley said he "greatly regrets" that the issue has gone so far, and described it as a "blot" on the council's "good work over the last 10 years".
Copthorne councillor Rob Wilson said the council should "apologise to all its residents, especially those in Greenfields".
At its next meeting on June 27, the council will discuss how the land can be returned to public ownership, look at establishing a mediation process for the deal to be done and look towards an appropriate process for dealing with its own inadequacies.
