Sell-off by Sandwell Council aims to raise £500k
Former council buildings will go under the hammer next month as the cash-strapped authority attempts to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Sandwell Council has put a number of former neighbourhood offices and parcels of land on the market. The authority needs to save £75 million by 2015. It is hoped more than £500,00 will be raised to boost council coffers from the sell-off. Sites up for grabs include the former neighbourhood office in Cradley Heath with a guide price of around £150,000.
The site at the junction of St Anne's Road and Lower High Street includes grounds and parking for 12 vehicles.
Meanwhile, the office on the corner of Sheepwash Lane and Whitehall Road in Great Bridge, Tipton, is also up for auction with a guide price of in excess of £80,000 and the former office on Clifton Lane, West Bromwich is also on the market with a guide price of £150,000 to £170,000.
The sites have already been declared as surplus to requirements by the authority and it is hoped they will be redeveloped in the future.
The neighbourhood offices were used by council tenants in Sandwell to pay rent and taxes.
Sandwell Homes announced the offices would close in February as part of cost-cutting moves.
Also going under the hammer will be plots of land at the junction of Dingle Street and Dingle Hollow in Oldbury, land adjacent to Florence Road in West Bromwich and land at the former 107-115 Pottery Road in Oldbury.
Sandwell Council's economy boss, Councillor Derek Rowley, said: "We need the additional capital to offset the cuts being imposed by central Government and we would rather vacant buildings come into a use instead of lying empty waiting to be vandalised."
The Bigwood auction will be held at Villa Park on December 12.
