QUOTE (blackdog @ May 15 2015, 04:16 PM)
As they appear to be considering compulsory purchase I don't see any leaseholder issues - I think the leased bit is along the canal (ie the bit WBC would quite like to develop) whereas the bulk of the park was passed back to Newbury freehold when NTC was created. I may well be wrong (often am) and it could be compulsory purchase of the leasehold interest that they are contemplating.
I didn't appreciate that; I had always thought that the whole thing was leased. Thanks for the info.
I'm honestly quite ambivalent about the Faraday Road development; something is needed to properly tidy up this area of the expanding town, but then, 'scruffy commercial areas' are wholly necessary to keep the local economy buoyant. The roads issue is similarly important - the area presently has just one feed into to the districts acknowledged most difficult road hub.
However, as usual round here, there seems to be no joined up strategy plan, no overall vision, no integrated assessment. It's like a jigsaw puzzle being made by different artists individually creating each piece - without knowing what the big picture is supposed to be.
It's made worse, because we have two separate 'authorities' notionally trying to do the same strategic job - NTC and WBC appear to have different and clashing views of the future.
What a mess.