Mid Sussex District Council to sell patch of unused land in Burgess Hill

The council owns the freehold of the land in Hammonds Ridge, south of Selby Close, and has allocated it in its development plan for 12 flats plus community use.

The ‘disposal’ of the site was agreed during a meeting of the cabinet on Monday (November 11), with members being told it would be ‘attractive’ to developers.

Chris Hobbs, cabinet member for leisure & customer services, said: “In times of financial challenge within the council, it’s important that we continue to look at all of our assets and make sure that they are returning us good value.

“Where we have assets such as this, where it’s returning us no value and can be used for a practical purpose – delivering new homes – then it makes sense that we search for those spaces and deal with them appropriately.”

No details were shared about the land’s worth or how much of the money would end up in the council’s coffers. The meeting moved into close session to discuss such matters.

But a sum will be paid to former owners Wates Second Land Ltd, which agreed a covenant on the land when it was sold to the council for £1 as part of a S106 legal agreement.

The covenant limited the future use of the land to ‘a building and site for the local community’s purposes’.

A report to the meeting said that using it for anything other than that before 79 years were up, without the covenant being discharged, meant the council would have to pay Wates 50% of the open market value of the land.

Gary Marsh (Con, Ardingly, Balcombe & Turners Hill) said the sale of the land would be ‘a good windfall’ for the council, adding that it would be ‘brilliant’ if the flats were built.