Two Conservative councillors have challenged the planned sale of Greenwich’s equestrian centre, which was approved in less than a minute by the town hall’s Labour cabinet last week.
Plans to sell a detached house at the rear of the Shrewsbury House community centre in Shooters Hill have also been called in for further scrutiny. The centre’s trustees have hit out at the sale, saying that it had been in discussion with the council about taking on the site.
Greenwich’s cabinet agreed to sell the properties, which are just a few hundred metres away from each other, at a meeting last Tuesday. The call-in aims to put the decision on hold.
The Greenwich Equestrian Centre opened in a blaze of publicity in 2013, and was billed as a legacy from hosting the equestrian events in Greenwich Park in the previous year’s Olympics. But it closed earlier this year when its operator, North Kent College, pulled out.
Up the hill, Shrewsbury House is thriving as an independently-run community centre after being threatened with closure as recently as 2017 because of a financial crisis.
The Shrewsbury House Community Association had hoped to bring 28 Mereworth Drive, which is thought to have been empty for about eight years, back into public use and use the surrounding land as a community garden.
No public statement was made about the sales, which was buried in the cabinet’s agenda under the title “Asset Review Further Outcomes” – a follow-up to a decision to sell the old Plumstead power station and a number of car parks made last month.
There was no discussion between the five councillors present, with all of them simply raising their hands to say “agreed”. No members of the public were present other than a reporter for The Greenwich Wire.
Sources across the council chamber say that Labour councillors have been put under pressure not to call the closures in themselves. The party won a council by-election in the ward just three weeks ago.
Matt Hartley, the Conservative opposition leader, said he decided to act after being contacted by community groups in the area, who he said had not been consulted. He also criticised the council’s handling of the sales of other properties including car parks.
“The community and local residents will now have a chance to come to a meeting at the town hall to get across their views – and I hope the cabinet will accept our proposal for a full public consultation before any decision is taken on the future of these two sites,” he said.
“More generally, I do think the council administration is getting its approach to these asset sales very wrong indeed. The leader of the council talks a good game on communication and consultation – and he’s spending more and more taxpayers’ money on it.
“But too often, when it comes to decisions that local communities really care about, the council isn’t even seeking their views at all. I think people are increasingly seeing through this approach for what it is.”
The call-in, from Hartley and his colleague Roger Tester, said that the public had not been consulted about the sales and that there were concerns for the future of Woodlands Farm if the next-door equestrian centre was sold.
Because of this month’s by-election in West Thamesmead, any call-in meeting is likely to take place in the new year.
The board of the Shrewsbury House Community Association said in a statement that it was “shocked” to hear of the decision to sell 28 Mereworth Drive, a boarded-up bungalow locally known as Green Garth and representing half of the Grade II-listed site. It is next to Shrewsbury House’s summer house, but separated from it by a fence.
It said that the decision was reminiscent of a council plan two decades ago to sell nearby Severndroog Castle, then also in a poor state and closed to the public. The proposal was scrapped amid an outcry. The Grade II-listed Gothic tower reopened in 2014 after a £600,000 lottery-funded renovation, and is now a popular attraction.
“There appears to have been no discussion of the proposal other than within a small group of senior council officers,” Sally MacDougal, the chair of Shrewsbury House’s trustees, said.
“Our most recent interactions with council officers involved discussion of a fully commercial lease, which we regard as unrealistic for a charitable organisation rooted in the local community,” she said.
“Officers also asked us to prepare a business case for a peppercorn rent for the site, leading us to believe the council was prepared to consider a community use for 28 Mereworth Drive.
“We are seriously concerned that members of the cabinet were not given this materially important information before it made its decision. We are also in discussion with a potential third sector partner with regard to bringing the Mereworth Drive building back into public use.”
Council documents about 28 Mereworth Drive said: “The council has made substantial investment of over £1.6 million in Shrewsbury House with large scale repair works. The property at Mereworth Drive is not part of the site that is managed by the Shrewsbury House Community Association.
“28 Mereworth Drive is shown within the curtilage of the listing, the property itself is not mentioned in the listing. An assessment of the cost benefit has been undertaken and it is recommended for disposal.”
There is currently no cabinet member for the portfolio covering community centres and leisure after the sacking of Ann-Marie Cousins last month, with Anthony Okereke, the council leader, yet to appoint a replacement.
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