The Dencora Field again
The Dencora Field has always been a subject of some uncertainty, mystery and (some think) skulduggery, and following the recent "SOLD" notice we've been waiting for the latest information.
The Crier provided some but not all of the news. Frank Readhead in his PC
Report mentioned that Allen Alderson commented on it at the last PC meeting and
reported that when it seemed likely a moving company would make the purchase
"others stepped in and bought it for about three times the asking
price." The official Parish Council report in the Crier did not mention
Dencora and neither did Allen AldersonÕs own Crier report. (His indignation
about the abandonment of the ECDC office development could reasonably explain
this).
But in the full PC minutes of the meeting, tucked away at the end of the usual full coverage of Allen's ECDC report, was the following:
"Dencora Field. The Purchaser, The English Land Partnership, buys up fields that could obtain planning consent in the long-term, then divides the field into house size plots and sells them off to investors for £11,000 - £16,000."
The asking price was about £1.5 million and the field was sold for nearly £5 million. Given the size of the field and the facts above someone should be able to produce some interesting figures.
So the uncertainty and mystery remains - who/what are English Land Partnership, is the usual clawback provision still in place, how many years will it be before the field is developed? I reckon that it will be about twenty years.