A major Devon council is hoping to bag up to £9 million from the sale of property and land it no longer needs by April next year.
Members of a committee that oversees assets owned by Devon County Council gave the green light for more sites to be put on the market in a bid to raise cash for the council.
The council has already sold four sites in the current financial year, which ends at the start of April 2027, for a total of £785,000 and it expects to bag between £6 million – £8 million from sites already declared surplus – including Exeter’s Larkbeare House..
The land and property committee (Wednesday 22 July) this week approved the disposal of six more sites, including part of a car park at Axminster Fire Station, a building at the former Kenton Primary School, and a parcel of land that had been earmarked for an A38 slip road near Ivybridge but which won’t go ahead.
Those could add to the total being targeted for this financial year depending on how quickly they are marketed and sold.
Officers stated the property market was “challenging” and that they were “constantly having to fight to keep disposals on track”.
Members of the committee heard that even though the major reorganisation of Devon’s councils had now been announced – meaning the prospective abolition of the county council – the committee still had authority to take decisions.
The sales that the committee approved were land at Beech Farm, in Ivybridge, land at Ivybridge Rugby Club, Torridgeside Link Centre, the former Barnstaple Link Community Centre, a portion of Axminster Fire Station car park and a site on the old Kenton Primary School.
The committee heard a statement from Councillor Dan Thomas (Liberal Democrat, South Brent & Yealmpton) that the land at Beech Road had been intended to be the site of a new slip road onto the A38.
“But the engineering and funding challenges mean the Lee Mill slip road scheme is not deliverable,” he said.
“There are significant concerns in relation to compliance with highway design standards and engineering constraints are difficult to overcome.”
He added even if there was funding available, the challenge of the project meant it could not go ahead.
With Ivybridge Rugby Club, the committee heard it wanted to buy a parcel of land owned by the county council so that it could build new facilities, including changing rooms.
In Axminster, Devon & Cornwall Police are in negotiations with the county council over buying part of the fire station’s car park.
Local member Councillor Paul Hayward (Independent, Axminster), who also works as the clerk for Axminster Town Council, said the move was supported in the town.
“If this car park was not available [for the police] then they would have to park on the streets around the station, and officers would be leaving in plain clothes without the protection of their uniforms and they could be identified,” he said.
“We are 100 per cent behind this.”
Cllr Hayward added Axminster’s police station was a satellite one and operated out of the fire station rather than being in its own building.
The committee also heard that the building at the former Kenton Primary School may be sold to an entity that is involved in education, but that no deal had been finalised.
Some committee members asked whether some of the properties being sold could be kept and developed into social housing.
However, officers stated the buildings being sold were small, as were the plots of land, and that previous guidance had been for the council to stay away from property development because of issues other councils had found themselves in when they entered the housebuilding industry.
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