The Humble Petition of residents of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire and the surrounding area,
Sheweth,
That the Petitioners believe that the proposed sale of the Jackson Car Park, should be refused on the grounds of the loss of public parking in the area which will have an enormous effect on local businesses, doctors surgery, the chemists, the Salvation Army, the Afro Caribbean Association, the Daylight Centre, the Society of Friends, the Job Centre and the United Reformed Church.
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House urges the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Borough Council in Wellingborough to take in account the concerns of the petitioners and refuse to grant the sale of the Jackson Lane Car Park to a private developer.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.—[Presented by Mr Peter Bone , Official Report, 12 September 2018; Vol. 646, c. 829 .]
[P002263]
Observations from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rishi Sunak):
Parking is the responsibility of local authorities and it is for them to determine what is appropriate in their own area. Central Government have no remit to intervene in local authorities’ day to day affairs.
However, under the Community Right to Bid legislation community groups have listed car parks as assets of community value. The scheme allows communities and parish councils to nominate buildings or land for listing by the local authority as Assets of Community Value. Any asset can be listed if its principal use furthers, or has recently furthered, their community’s social well-being or social interests which include cultural, sporting or recreational interests, and is likely to do so in the future.
I should point out that the listing of Assets of Community Value is a matter for the local authority and as such the Department does not comment on individual cases.
If successful, listed and made available for sale, community interest groups then have six weeks (the interim moratorium period) to lodge a non-binding expression of interest. This triggers a moratorium of a further four and half months (six months in total—the full moratorium period) to delay the sale of the asset. This affords community interest groups sufficient time to prepare and raise money to bid for it.
What the scheme does not do is compel the owner to sell to a community group, or set the price at which the owner must sell. The scheme seeks to balance the rights of private property owners with the interests of the community where the local authority agrees that the asset in question is an Asset of Community Value.