Ideal place for archives
There has recently been a council notice at Summerhill, Kingswinford, to the effect that the council has acquired C-Block - whatever that means! Having sold or leased this property to Newmount in the past, the council now wants it back in a wrecked condition.
However the notice is misleading because the council, having refused to disclose the price, has stated that: "The final terms and conditions and financial arrangements are still subject to continuing discussions between the council's director of finance and the company concerned."
In law an agreement to enter into an agreement is no agreement and until there is an agreement there is no purchase or acquisition. The council states that the archives will be moving to C-Block in the near future. How can this be when the building is still in its ever-worsening condition with no sign of any improvements to it commencing?
Councillors stated at the outset that the cost of demolishing Mount Pleasant School, selling the land as building land and converting C-Block must be "cost neutral" and the vote and decision of the full council was obtained on this basis.
It was of course impossible to know whether at that time "cost neutral" could be so. Since then we have been told that the work should be "broadly cost neutral".
If the whole scheme is not cost neutral, is not the full council's decision invalid and should not the matter be referred back to the committee of the council, which should have considered the matter in the first place?
The Mount Pleasant School buildings are the perfect place for the archives.
Mrs V Turner, Friends of Mount Pleasant School, Gervase Drive, Dudley.
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