Fenland District Council’s cabinet said it was ‘not acceptable’ the building was left ‘rotting for 20 years’
A delay in plugging an eyesore gap on Wisbech High Street has been branded “embarrassing” after the council were not told about issues with the plans.
Fenland District Council’s Conservative cabinet were told a full planning application was submitted for 11-12 High Street, two properties which were demolished in 2020 after lying vacant for years.
Cllr Samantha Hoy, of Wisbech South, said: “I’m sorry, it’s just really not acceptable – this building has sat there decaying for 20 plus years and this district council is responsible. It’s under our ownership and we must not let it carry on.”
She said it had also taken “so long” to redevelop 24 High Street and they “need to get the work started”.
Cllr Steve Tierney, also of Wisbech South, said it is “just not acceptable for this building to have sat rotting for 20 years”. He said if the work is not complete before the council is abolished after local government reorganisation, it “will be remembered, rightly, as a failure of ours”.
He said: “It’s not good enough, we should be getting it done by summer like we said we would.”
Cllr Christopher Seaton, the portfolio holder for Wisbech High Street projects, said the new mayor had asked for a “proper business case”, done by real estate agents Avison Young.
He said: “In all honesty, the officers said to me they did not have the sufficient experience to put forward a business case.”
Cllr Hoy said it had been “ten weeks” since the application was validated on May 13, after being received on April 10 and said “the whole thing is embarrassing”.
She said: “I know there’s a process, but we’ve had other applications – more controversial applications – that have not only been validated but decided and a decision notice issued in six weeks. When we want to do things within the time frame, we can, and this has sat there for ten weeks and we are not any further along on this at all.”
Cllr Dee Laws said the planning application had been rejected and there was an “issue regarding the bat survey, and we can’t overrule ecology”. She confirmed the proposal would be put before September’s planning committee.
Cllr Tierney said: “Having just been told that officers didn’t feel they had enough experience to write a business plan for this building – I think most members of the public watching this meeting will say, what sort of officers are we employing if they can’t make a business plan for something like that?”
Cllr Boden said: “My disappointment is that we’re only now, as members of the cabinet including the portfolio holder, hearing about this bat survey problem and what happened. I’m amazed it hasn’t been referred back to us prior to this.”
Cllr Seaton said: “I’m extremely concerned to find out during a meeting that the planning application is in this position because I haven’t been told that information. That is, to me, extremely bad – it makes me look stupid and it makes us all look a little foolish about it.”
Council leader Chris Boden said it was “astonishing” that there had been a failure to communicate “over such a long period of time”.
He said: “We must have an explanation about how this has ended up happening. It’s embarrassing to the council, to be quite honest, that we should be put in this position.”
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