Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Property Services and Development

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Property Services and Development relating to proposed land acquisition and Compulsory Purchase Order for the delivery of the City Centre South Scheme.

A corresponding private report was also submitted to the meeting setting out the commercially confidential matters of the proposals. (Minute 70 below refers.)

The City Centre South scheme (the Scheme) would deliver transformational improvements to Coventry city centre through new homes, jobs, commercial and leisure opportunities and high-quality public spaces. In January 2017, the Council (their minutes 102/16 and 110/16 referred) and the Cabinet (minutes 104/16 and 107/16 referred) took the key decisions to appoint SPG as the preferred development partner, to accept £98.8m of grant funding from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and to approve, in principle, the use of compulsory purchase powers to deliver the Scheme.

The report, therefore, sought formal approval to make the necessary Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) further to these previous decisions. It should be noted that the Council’s preference was to acquire the land and rights necessary for the delivery of the Scheme by negotiation rather than CPO and negotiations with landowners would therefore continue in parallel with the CPO process.

Accordingly, the design of the Scheme also aimed to minimise the extent of third-party land required. The Council was the freeholder of the vast majority of the site, however, there was still a significant amount of the land required for the Scheme that was subject to leases or other interests granted to third parties. The Council required ownership and control of these property interests in order for the City Centre South scheme to be delivered.

Appendices to the report provided: the Draft CPO map showing land and rights proposed to be acquired; a plan showing proposed parameters of the Scheme; the Equalities Impact Assessment; the Draft Statement of Reasons; the draft Schedule of Interests; the Delivery Approach Report; the Draft CPO; the draft Highways Order Land; the land within the Council’s freehold ownership proposed for appropriation for planning purposes excluding open space land; the open space land within the redevelopment site proposed for inclusion within the Order Land in respect of which a certificate under section 19 Acquisition of Land Act 1981 was to be sought; the open space land within the redevelopment site in respect of which public notice of intention to appropriate for planning purposes and/or dispose was proposed to be given; the open space proposed to be provided within the Scheme; and the Site Assembly Strategy - Information for Businesses.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

1)  Resolves to make a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) pursuant to powers under Section 226(1)(a) Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and Section 13 Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976), in accordance with the procedures in the Acquisition of Land Act 1981, for the acquisition of interests in the land coloured pink and for the creation and acquisition of new rights over the land coloured blue on the draft CPO map attached at Appendix  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65