Vetch Field - Still For Sale

An interesting report has appeared in the most recent Council Cabinet Agenda Pack this month. It details the problems the council has had in selling the Vetch Field for the last 3 years.

Back in 2007 the council put together a Masterplan for the redevelopment of the site. The plans were to include housing, a new community centre and a public open space or amenity area. As part of the plans it would also be the developers’ responsibility to demolish the Vetch Field. The council advertised the site in various publications and sent mail shots to 24 parties who had previously expressed an interest. As part of the application process all applicants had to complete a questionnaire in order to determine their suitability as an applicant. 30 parties requested the questionnaires but only 1 was returned. Regardless of the poor response to the first stage of the process, the council still decided to continue with the tender process with the single applicant.

The single applicant completed the tender giving 2 options for development. The first option was to demolish the stadium, provide mixed tenure housing and build a £1m community centre, but this option relied heavily on grant aid in order to make it financially viable. The second option was to not build the community centre, have a reduced public open space and increase the housing density – only this way could the developer make it financially viable. Needless to say, both tenders were rejected by the council and so the Vetch Field still has no buyer.

As a result of the poor response to the tendering process the council has now realised that under the existing Masterplan it is not financially viable for any developer. Developers were not interested due to the costs of the stadium demolition, costs of building a community centre, reduced land utilisation by having to provide a public open space and reduced revenue from providing the recommended number of houses.

The council has since managed to secure a grant from the Welsh Assembly of £700,000 that will pay for the demolition and landscaping of the site. The council says that this will make the site more marketable to potential developers as they will be bidding for a greenfield site. However, the £700,000 grant must be repaid to the Welsh Assembly from the proceeds of the sale of the land.

Perhaps the most interesting points about the report are that the council have decided to review the requirements of the Masterplan in order to make it more financially viable for any developer. The council has said it is necessary to review the need and affordability of a replacement to St Philips Community Centre, or to simply refurbish it.  So we can expect to see any future development of the Vetch Field to possibly have more housing, less open space and may even be without a new community centre.