Purpose

A proposal to market part of the former Bucks Sports & Social Club for community use

Decision

Cabinet received a report regarding the marketing of part of the former Sports & Social Club for community use. 

The site ran as a private members Sports & Social Club for many years until it was closed in 2018 as an unviable ongoing concern.  In 2022, Cabinet granted permission to seek planning permission for a residential development on the site. An outline planning application (OPA) for housing was approved in August 2024. The outline planning decision was challenged by a Judicial Review (JR).

One of the points upheld by the JR related to Policy I3 of the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan. To address this, the Council required Officers to market the site for community use for a period of 12 months before the application could be redetermined. Officers would need to sufficiently evidence the viability of any bid/interest shown from a community use only marketing exercise. Without doing so, Policy I3 which protected assets with a community use from being lost would prevent the application for housing being accepted. If there was no viable interest in community use, the site could be considered for an alternative use, i.e. residential, as per the planning application.  It was therefore recommended that the site be marketed for community use only for a period of 12 months. If a viable Community use offer was submitted in the initial 12 weeks, Officers could put this forward to Members for consideration of bringing the marketing to an end earlier.

Following the JR outcome, Officers had been liaising with Stoke Mandeville Parish Council (“SMPC”) regarding their offer for the site (received in September 2025 and updated following their initial offer in February 2024) in face-to-face meetings and via email. Officers would continue to engage with SMPC during the marketing process. It was proposed that SMPC would be asked to resubmit their bid, adjusted to include the Northern field only. An open marketing process would need to be undertaken to consider SMPC’s bid so that the Council could demonstrate Best Value and to satisfy S123 requirements.

Officers recommended that the site advertised for disposal would exclude the Southern Field land for the Booker Park School access road. Without the access road, the school could not expand, depriving the County of much needed SEND provision. The Southern Field would be recognised as part of the school’s grounds by being formally recognized as a separate planning unit through the grant of a certificate of lawfulness. This application would be submitted to the Local Planning Authority if the report’s recommendations were approved or alternatively could be followed up by a future decision for the land being appropriated under section 122 of the Local Government Act 1972 to show the land was no longer required by the Council as landowner for its current community purpose and was required to be held as education land meaning school playing fields instead. Legal advice was that either option would be acceptable.

It was noted that Cabinet Members had received additional representations from two local ward members prior to the meeting, setting out comments from Stoke Mandeville Parish Council on the matter. The Cabinet Member for Resources addressed the comments made whilst introducing the report. 

RESOLVED to agree:

1)      That the Former Sports & Social Club be separated into three parcels comprising of (a) the Northern Field, (b) Southern Field and (c) access road for Booker Park School (as defined in the report) and ultimately for the Northern Field to be disposed of through a sale and for the Southern Field to be retained as education land.

2)      That the Northern Field is marketed for a 12-month period to allow for alternative uses of the site to be considered if no suitable offers are received. If a viable Community use offer is submitted in the initial 12 weeks, Officers can put this forward to Members for consideration of bringing the marketing to an end earlier.