| Topic: | Not the Conservators' Q&A | |
| Posted by: | John Cameron | |
| Date/Time: | 28/09/14 09:57:00 |
| Time for a new Putney Hospital thread...too much scrolling The Conservators have put a Q&A page up on Windmill Towers interweb. The following are the Q's they ask themselves. The A's are not. Q. Have the Conservators sold Common land to Wandsworth Council? A. Yes, in effect the Conservators sold the access to Wandsworth. The land will become the drive and access for the school and luxury flats, it will be tarmacked, protected by a 1 metre high mound / ditch, dozens of bollards, an electronic barrier and lit by street lighting. It will cease to be common. Picnic on it and you will get run over or arrested. So don’t. Q. Did the Conservators get the best possible value for the easement? A. Who knows? We are not going to let on but our stance is that the Conservators have, throughout their involvement, initially with the Primary Care Trust and latterly with Wandsworth Council, obtained independent legal and valuation advice from professional firms. But we never released the advice. We claim to have at all times in the best interests of the Commons and Levy-payers, but didn’t. We never consulted the Levy payers, we signed the deal in secret, we publicly objected to the over intensive development and privately admit that Putney Lower Common will be destroyed by the use. Q. What was the valuation for the easement? A. £350,000 but we are not going to release the independent advice and valuation we obtained. It’s like confidential, as it has a bit in it that says it’s err, confidential. But we do act in an open and transparent manner. Honestly. Q. Why did the Conservators apply only £1 for the school access and £349,999 for the residential easement? A. We set a commercial rate for the residential easement and only £1 for the primary academy access. We didn't agree a commercial rate for the school as it was “free at the point of entry”, and we care more about providing free schools and cheap land to Wandsworth than we do about our fiduciary duties to the Charity that we are Trustees of. We know we have a duty of care to the Charity, to only act in the best interests of the Charity, and could have got a lot lot more, but we chose to ignore it. Hey ho. It was only a few million quid, and of course we are loaded. Like completely minted, with £2.5m in the bank. So we don’t really need the money. Q. How much land will be returned to Common as part of the approved scheme? A. None, as 100% of the land that is going to be “returned to common”, is common already and was common before the sale of the access. And a swathe 6m wide x 110m long will be tarmacked, but it’s common as well. The land that provides the tarmacked turning circle was swopped for some land down the A3, near Asda. It’s a pretty crappy bit of land quite honestly, and we paid a lot of money for it. We now realise that we were legged over by Wandsworth and are trying to wriggle out of this, and get some land near Putney Common, to replace the land at Putney Common that we gave away. Hmm, might want to think about this all, as it doesn't seem, to make sense. Q. What will happen to the woodland belt along the western boundary of the Common that provides an important screen? A. This woodland is in need of “management”, and up to now we have never really bothered about it, as it’s in Putney so doesn't really matter. Putney is where we get a ton of money from, but quite frankly it’s not Wimbledon Common is it? However as we now have the school next to us, and they want a view, we will cut down a lot of trees and call it “management”, and say that it is to “ensure the long term viability”. Wandsworth are paying for this, which is really generous of them. Not sure why. Q. Where can I find out more about the complex legal issues associated with this development? A. Not from the Conservators, but an article about the court cases that cost us a ****** fortune can be found on our website. It won’t tell you much, but it’s kind of interesting if you are a QC. |