Decision details

The Cabinet will be provided with an update on the on-going role of Council and the key issues surrounding the Barking Riverside Development and will be asked to consider proposals to sell the Cromwell Centre

Further to Minute 52 (25 August 2009), the Cabinet Member for Regeneration presented a report on the proposed sale of Unit 1, The Cromwell Centre, on the open market and for the funds to be put back into improving pedestrian and cycle networks in the Thames Road/Barking Riverside and Thames View areas.

The Cabinet Member advised that the property had previously been purchased via funding from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) as part of the Barking Riverside development to establish a direct footpath cycle link between Barking Riverside and the centre of Thames View.  However, further consultation with the unit owners and the Environment Agency, since the property was acquired, brought to light issues that made this proposal undeliverable and, as a consequence, the property had become surplus to the Council’s requirements.

Cabinet agreed:-

  (i)  The sale of the Unit 1, The Cromwell Centre, for the maximum price that can reasonably be negotiated and to authorise the Corporate Director of Finance and Resources, in consultation with the Divisional Director of Legal and Democratic Services, to agree the details of the disposal;

  (ii)  To authorise the Divisional Director of Legal and Democratic Services to enter into the necessary legal agreements to achieve the disposal of the site based on an agreed heads of terms; and

 (iii)  To invest the receipt from the sale of the property in the improvement of pedestrian/cycle links along Thames Road/Crossness Road/ Marine Drive and in the Barking Riverside and Thames View developments.