Agenda item

Report of the Director of Environment and Neighbourhoods. To be presented by the Cabinet Member for Communities and Civic Life.

The report will seek approval to amend the proposed lease offered to OrganicLea for the Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre. The new lease will reflect the establishment of the onsite consortium. It will also vary the red line boundary of the site.

The Cabinet Member for Communities and Civic Life introduced the report which sought approval to amend the proposed lease offered to OrganicLea for the Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre. The new lease would reflect the establishment of the onsite consortium. It would also vary the red line boundary of the site.

It was noted that the proposal would enable the Wolves Lane Consortium to access £2.5 million of funding from the Greater London Authority (GLA) and National Lottery. It was added that this would contribute to the manifesto commitment to identify sites for community food growing programmes.

RESOLVED

1.    To authorise that the Council enters into a lease for a period of 25 years in relation to the area of land specified in the report (which is shown coloured red, green and blue in Figure 1 in this report) with Wolves Lane Consortium in a form substantially like the draft lease appended to this report at Appendix A.

2.    To delegate authority to the Assistant Director of Property and Capital Projects to make minor amendments to the draft lease and to agree the terms of the lease.

Reasons for decision

The Cabinet resolved in January 2017 to lease the Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre to OrganicLea for a period of 25 years. The bid submitted at that time was on behalf of an informal consortium of partners. The informal consortium in 2019 formed a new legal entity called the Wolves Lane Consortium.

The original bid by OrganicLea always envisaged this new consortium being formed and this is the fulfilment of that intention. The original bid also included a plan to seek significant external funding to develop the site and have a programme of activities that would make the site self-sufficient over a number of years.

OrganicLea and the Wolves Lane Consortium have now secured £2.5m from the GLA and National Lottery. £1.5m of this funding is to improve the facilities on site and £1m is to support programmes of community activity and develop revenue streams to ensure the site is self-sustaining over the next five years.

Without the changes to the name of the lease holder or the expansion of the area included in the lease to the Wolves Lane Consortium, this £2.5m investment into the borough would be lost.

The proposed new facilities and accompanying community food growing programmes can make a significant contribution to the manifesto commitments.

Alternative options considered

The Council could reject the request for change of lease holder name. However, this would risk the loss of £1.9m worth of external funding from the National Lottery. The £600k from the GLA is not dependent on the name change.

The Council has already resolved to lease two parts (the green and blue portions shown in Figure 1 in paragraph 6.7 below) of the site to OrganicLea for a period of 25 years. Therefore, the only option available to the Council is to do something different with the third portion of the site (the red area shown in Figure 1 in paragraph 6.7 below).

The whole of the site and adjacent land is designated as Metropolitan Open Land for planning purposes and therefore its use is limited. The Council originally retained this portion of the site as a possible Parks Service depot. That option has been subsequently investigated and ruled out on the basis of cost. The land is bounded by fencing and is gated and is not accessible by the general public. In addition, it has been confirmed that the land does not come within the definition of “open space” for the purposes of s123(2A) of the Local Government Act 1972.

The Council could choose to market the third portion of the site separately. However, this was also discounted because:

·         The site’s planning designation is as Metropolitan Open Land and this significantly limits the use of the site for other purposes.

·         £2.5m of external investment into the site and the local community development activities would be lost.

·         Any income the Council would receive would be significantly less over the 25 years of the lease than the £1.5m investment to improve the site.

·         Public access to the site is currently via the green portion of the site (shown in Figure 1 in paragraph 6.7 below).

·         Previously interested parties are operating from the site as part of the wider user base.