A Nottinghamshire council could buy part of a housing estate plagued by issues in a bid to build new council homes.
The former Hardys & Hansons brewery site in Kimberley has already been partially turned into a housing estate, where housebuilder Fairgrove started building on the nearly 200-year-old site in 2015.
However, residents living in some homes built as part of earlier phases have faced a number of problems over recent years.
Leaky roofs, unfinished roads, poor drainage and rats are part of the issues residents have had to deal with. Some remedial works on site still remain.
After years of homeowner complaints and probes by Broxtowe Borough Council over whether the developer had broken planning obligations, the site was taken over by the funder of the project in February after workers were sent home from the site on January 29.
The Borough Council is set to spend £18,000 on groundwork investigations for the unworked ‘phase three’ of the site – which has existing planning consent for 75 homes – to assess “what problems are in the ground” and the value it could be to the authority.
Depending on the results of the surveys, the council could look to purchase the site for it to be used for new social housing.
Speaking at the council’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday (March 10), a council officer said: “If the survey merits further work, then we can look at doing further work to look at the valuation of the site – perhaps look at an architecture course or see if we could put in another planning application to get a larger number of units on the site.
“But before we do that we need to know what problems are in the ground, what the estimated costs of doing these necessary works are, and what the value of the site would be to ourselves.”
Councillor Greg Marshall (Brox Alliance), deputy leader of the authority, said: “There is no obligation for us as an authority to intervene here and take over, but what we’re saying is we want to do the right thing and we want to help those people who have been so badly let down.
“This is not necessarily a panacea. We have to assess what comes back from this survey work, but it’s certainly the first step in progressing a very unfavourable situation.”
Labour councillor Peter Bales questioned whether the groundworks money would cover the “snagging issues” on the estate’s previous phases – at this stage it does not.
Council leader Milan Radulovic (Brox Alliance) added: “[With the survey results] coming back to the council, then the council, as well as making an offer to the receivers, can pressurise, in my opinion, the receivers to put aside a certain amount for fixing phase one and two – the outstanding snagging risk.
“That only becomes part of our moral responsibility should we be the successful bidders to phase three.”
Cllr Radulovic added he expects the council to be “successful” in a bid and said there were currently around 1,350 people on the authority’s housing waiting list, with more than 300 people having a preference for Kimberley.
Cllr Philip Owen (Con) asked: “Are you saying if Broxtowe Borough Council successfully purchases the land to build out phase three, that all of that remedial work [around existing homes] will be completed?”
Cllr Radulovic replied: “Essentially, yes.”
He continued: “The County Council holds a bond, a section 278 bond, on completion of the highways and street lighting. We don’t know what that bond is at the moment – these are part of the investigation.
“If that bond and the integrity of the bond are in place, then there is no reason why, when phase three’s finished, the whole lot will be finished – no reason whatsoever.”
The previous developer, Fairgrove, was aiming to create high-quality properties inside the old kiln stores, tower and Grade II-listed maltings.
The Kimberley Brewery was originally opened in 1832 and acted as a major employer in the town with more than 200 employees.
It was sold off to Greene King in 2006 but abandoned five years later, when it was left to fall into disrepair.
The former brewery’s Victorian-era tower was supposed to be repaired and developed into three homes from 2021 onwards, but was sold in September to another developer after years of concern over its safety.
