Purpose

The Council Plan sets out the Council’s
ambition to minimise the burden of local taxation, delivering the
agreed priorities for residents within the approved budget and
capital programme.
 
The Council maintains
an Asset
Management Policy and Strategy that details how the
Council’s Assets will be managed and developed to deliver
against the targets within the Council Plan.  
 
West Sussex County Council owns
46 hectares of land to the east of Chichester known as Brick Kiln
Farm.  Approximately 42% of this site (19.4 hectares) has been
provisionally included in the emerging Chichester Local Plan 2021 -
2039, ref Policy Site A20, with an expectation it will be allocated
for employment floorspace, once the plan is
adopted. 
 
To deliver the ambitions for
the site in accordance with the Council’s strategy and the
Local Plan, a suitably qualified and experienced commercial
development partner is being procured to submit a planning
application and gain commercial planning consent for the site. The
Council’s agents have marketed the opportunity and interested
organisations have presented their proposals and terms for
promoting the site. A Promotion Agreement will cover the terms and
conditions on which the County Council will sell the land to a
third party with the benefit of the planning consent.

Decision

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Property
has approved that:
 
(1)    
the County Council declares part of the Brick Kiln Estate surplus
to operational requirements as set out in the Site Plan (Appendix
B);
 
(2)    
authority is delegated to the Assistant Director (Property and
Assets) in conjunction with the Executive Director of Law,
Assurance and Insight to enter into a Promotion Agreement, with
Wates Developments, to submit a planning application to gain
commercial planning consent for the site. The term of the agreement being for four years
with the option to extend for a further four years with an ultimate
longstop date of 10 years;
 
(3)    
subject to the grant of planning consent, the County Council
disposes of its freehold estate in the site on the open market, at
no less than a Minimum Price Per Net Developable Acre; and
 
(4)    
should the offer be withdrawn, the proposal is to award the
Promotion Agreement to the next highest bidder or to another party
at an agreed minimum value.