Council buys back land wrongly sold to developers

Shrewsbury council said the land had wrongly been deemed surplus to requirements

A piece of land that was wrongly sold for development by a council has been bought back by the authority for £1.34m.

Shrewsbury Town Council sold part of the Greenfields recreation ground, on Falstaff Street in 2017, but planning permission was later overturned in the Supreme Court after a campaign by residents.

Council leader Alan Mosley said the authority would work with the local community to decide how the patch of land should be used.

The current plan was to "cultivate and maintain the area as a nature recovery and countryside site," he added.

The council said the land had wrongly been "deemed at the time to be surplus to requirements".

Mr Mosley said: “The council’s intention back in 2017 was to sell a piece of land that it saw as not needed, in order to raise funds to support and develop town council facilities throughout the Bagley area and in other parts of the town."

It was never the council's plan to sell off other parts of land in Greenfields, he explained.

The council said it now has a “rigorous policy” and strict guidelines to ensure a similar situation cannot happen again.

It also said it used the money it received from the sale of the land, plus interest accrued, for the purchase, meaning the net cost was £600,000.

The council said it had no plans to increase taxes and hoped to recover more of the costs by pursuing compensation from "other parties we believe are responsible for the errors in 2017".