Welcome to your local community website...
Letter - Council 'are not buyers of last resort'
It is easy for the local Labour group to propose motions that have, on the face of it, popular appeal ('Council will not rescue Good Fairy', 1 July).
However they do not have the responsibility of making sure the Council can meet its responsibilities to protect vital local services through these current challenging financial times.
The site of the Good Fairy is for sale, and the estimated price for the existing building is £3 million.
The building already has planning consent to convert to retail and to build two large flats over the retail space below.
The estimated cost of this work is another £1.8 million.
The Council would like to see the antique traders continue in their business, but councils are not buyers of last resort and our priorities are schools, adult and children's social care and other vital front line services.
The Council needs to find savings of £50 million by 2015 if we are to prevent the necessity to greatly reduce some of the services people rely on.
It is with regret that the Council is unable to purchase the site but, if we were to do so other services would need to be reduced and other local businesses in difficulties would wonder why they too should not seek and receive local borough funding.
Yours faithfully
Councillor Timothy Coleridge
Cabinet Member for Housing and Property
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
We'd like to hear from you. Send your stories, pics and videos
Leave a comment