Talks to buy part of Shrewsbury park after it was wrongly sold

Shrewsbury Town Council has set aside £614,000 for the re-purchase of part of Greenfields Recreation Ground

Lawyers acting for a council are in talks with the owners of land wrongly sold for development with the aim of buying it back, the authority said.

Shrewsbury Town Council has set aside £614,000 for the re-purchase of part of Greenfields Recreation Ground, after planning permission was quashed by the Supreme Court.

A judicial review had criticised the council for not checking whether it was part of a park before the sale in 2017.

The authority apologised for failings.

Land had been sold for £550,000, although a judicial review was brought by Dr Peter Day and Greenfields Community Group.

The council pledged last June to buy it back, but, after taking legal advice, voted to wait until after the Supreme Court ruling to start negotiations.

Planning permission for homes to be built was quashed earlier this year.

New procedures

At a meeting on Monday, council leader Alan Mosley said its solicitor and the developer's solicitor had exchanged letters.

He added: "Our solicitor has also written to other people that were involved in the whole process and we are awaiting some replies to some questions that we have raised."

Councillor Rob Wilson asked if any thought had gone into how additional costs would be met, if the re-purchase and legal fees exceeded the £614,000 budget.

The leader said: "We have got what we have got at the moment. Clearly if there are additional costs that are going to be incurred as a result of the re-purchase, we would have to consider that under the usual process."

The authority has apologised for its failings and put new procedures in place to ensure a similar mistake does not happen again.