By local residents
Regular readers of Sunbury Matters will know that previous articles on this unwelcome development at the top of Green Street have shone a light on the way the council has shielded this development from public scrutiny. Right from the start they have shut out the public, turned a tin ear to com-plaints and held important meetings in secret. Recently on August 9th at the Development Sub-Committee, the public were excluded from the decision to press ahead with Phase 2 of the devel-opment, despite the concerns of their own Leader and no up to date financial plan.
Councillor Lawrence Nichols, Spelthorne Borough Council Leader, said in the meeting that the author-ity had “not been transparent” over its plans for Benwell House, in Green Street, which had ap-proval in 2018 for 55 residences and has over vari-ous stages now grown to 91 flats. Mr Nichols also said in the meeting the money needed to build beyond 69 flats had never been discussed in full council. He told the sub-committee “I have serious concerns about the way this de-velopment has been brought forward. There are now over 200 objections locally. I don’t like what’s been built, I don’t think the com-munity likes what’s been built and it’s inap-propriate in its setting”. Despite this other councillors on the committee (including Low-er Sunbury’s Helen Harvey) voted to press on.
It seems the council has good reason to mini-mise publicity about this development. The original aim of the scheme was to make mon-ey to provide affordable housing for local people.
Regrettably Spelthorne appears to be failing on both counts. The purchase of the site was approved in July 2017 for c. £9m. In Septem-ber 2017 the number of units was increased to 69, with a build budget of £13.8m. There are no formal records of the reasons and approval for this increase, however due to what an in-ternal report termed poor financial manage-ment, this entire budget has been spent on Phase 1. In January this year the council offic-ers had to return cap in hand to the full coun-cil meeting to ask for approval of up to anoth-er £5.6 million to build Phase 2.
Unbelievably there is still no up to date finan-cial plan for the site however the council says it must build Phase 2 or the scheme will make a loss. The council says that the only way to recti-fy the loss incurred for Phase 1 is to build more, much more than originally planned. How can resi-dents trust that won’t lead to a bigger loss? Coun-cil financial management to date hardly instils confidence. So a fail on point 1.
The slogan for this development has been afforda-ble homes for local people. Very laudable. Howev-er 2 bed flats in Benwell Phase 1 were advertised at £1,750 rent per month. New residents in these flats can look down at a 3 bed semi-detached house with garden in Pinewood that could have been theirs for £1,550 per month. Hardly affordable.
So a double fail for Spelthorne. One might reason-ably assume the financials were flawed right from the start, Spelthorne overpaid for the site and failed on their due diligence and financial controls ever since.