January sales, Craven council style.

Here's a little quiz for you.

What's the going price for a few acres of land on Gargrave Road? Land opposite Aireville Grange and adjacent to the auction mart? (Map HERE)

Answer later, so no cheating!

Last night's meeting went exactly as predicted, Craven district council's (CDC's) policy committee met and nodded through the offer made by Bentleys for the field on Gargrave Road. The discussions between Bentleys and the council have taken some 18 months, but councillors were given a few short days to absorb the information and vote on it. Indeed a motion to wait a short while and see what other offers might be made was rejected!
The votes were recorded, and are noted at the end of this article. If you feel that you have something to say on this point, perhaps you should contact your local councillor.

The committee is chaired by Carl Lis, and contains such as Paul English and David Crawford.
The plan to sell the land to Bentleys was recommended by Jonathan Kerr, and keen eyes may well notice the similarity between those names and the ones who pushed for carpeting Skipton with high rise flats and car parks.


The council is charged with getting value for money when it sells our assets, our land, but they don't have to use auctions or tenders, instead they get valuations from independent valuers, to use as a measure - for some reason Craven district council, presumably ordered by Kerr, used a huge American company, Jones Lang LaSalle based in Illinois.
Perhaps because the council don't know of any competent valuers in Craven?
Whilst Jones Lang LaSalle do have offices in England, their main business seems to be in valuing land etc. for developers, as to whether it could be a viable purchase.
Perhaps a strange choice for land vendors!

Here's a clue to the price offered, and now accepted.
The council were told by Bentleys that if they didn't let them have this land then they, Bentleys, would move away from Skipton. CDC have a track record of giving in to big business, see HERE for details of the HML affair, so maybe Bentleys thought they were on to a sure thing.
Interestingly, Dacre son and Hartley apparently came up with an offer which was brushed aside. But then how could Dacre son and Hartley be expected to know as much about land values in Skipton as Jones Lang LaSalle of Illinois?

And so to the price.
Paakwa is informed that Bentleys is to pay no less than...

£340,000

Around the same price as was paid for just one inner terrace opposite this site two years ago (details HERE) although the field Bentleys want would hold at least 24 times as many houses as that.
One of the two councillors whose constituents live in that area is David Crawford, but alas he was apparently away and could not attend the meeting, no doubt something much more pressing came up.
His doppelganger, or double, was nearby during the day though, playing golf. A good healthy game that, and far better than stuffy council chambers.
For doppelgangers.

Paakwa is informed that Bentleys is possibly the preferred partner in Skipton's redevelopment scheme. This scheme is overseen by a small committee of six, chaired by Carl Lis who is aided by councillors David Crawford and Paul English.
Keen eyes might note some similarity in all the names above.
Paakwa is absolutely certain that equally hard bargains will be fought by the councillors in looking after the interest of Craven taxpayers as these doughty people have shown in bargaining so far. A bid of a tenner has been entered for the town hall, certain to be accepted, because if it isn't Paakwa has threatened to move out of town.

If the council follows its normal procedure at this time, then it will quite likely try to find someone to blame for letting this figure out into the public domain, instead of asking themselves what they were trying to hide, so here are three questions for councillors and council officers to contemplate:

If the price quoted is a fair price for that piece of land, then why the secrecy?
When is Craven district council going to stop pretending to be open and transparent?
and does anyone out there know how to spell predetermination?

The voting details from the 19^th December Policy Committee are as follows:

Amendment – That consideration of the request by Messrs J N Bentley’s to purchase land at Gargrave Road, Skipton is deferred to (a) enable officers to establish whether anyone else is interested in purchasing the land and (b) pending a report on what other options have been considered in respect of a site for relocating J N Bentley’s.

For: Councillors Mrs Fairbank, Foster, Turner, Whaites and Welch

Against: Councillors Barrington, Camacho, Polly English, Heather, Ireton, Lis, Mulligan, Place and Wheeler.

Motion – (1) That the offer made by J N Bentley’s for the field OS 5707, Gargrave Road, Skipton is noted.

(2) That the Council disposes of the land comprising field OS 5707 at Gargrave Road, Skipton to J N Benthley’s of Skipton, subject to the Council at least achieving the market valuation for the land as set out in the Valuation Report at Appendix C (exempt from publication) to the Director of Community Services’ report.

For: Councillors Barrington, Camacho, Polly English, Heather, Lis, Mulligan, Place and Wheeler.

Against: Councillors Mrs Fairbank, Ireton, Turner and Welch

Abstained: Councillors Foster and Whaites.

Part (2) of the motion will go forward to the Council Meeting on 22^nd January as a recommendation.