latest Station Area plans Posted:24/02/2010 08:48:49
Cb1 – the background
In October 2008 the Council approved the plans for the Cb1 scheme round the Station and the developer Ashwell promised all sorts of free things to the Council if they were given permission. A new bus interchange, a new cycle park, a new station square, a wonderful new gateway to Cambridge and lots of money to help pay for the guided bus and new parks around the City.
In more detail the plan is
• An enlarged Station Square surrounded by five and six storey hotel, office buildings, shops, bars and hot food outlets.
• A series of new office blocks in Station Road ranging in height from five to nine storeys. (more than doubling the amount of office space on the site.)
• 330 residential flats and further accommodation for 1250 students from Anglia Ruskin University to a total of 1,858 people.
• A 650 space multi deck car park (including space for 2000 cycles) and a series of 9 new bus stops, grandly called an ‘bus interchange’
• A new access road from Tenison Road (through the current Focus site) to the new car park and hotel. This road will also take all the cars and taxi traffic for the station forecourt.
Our objection
The Residents Association objected on a number of grounds, the height and density of the plans, the lack of pubic open green space, the 35% increase in traffic. We were also deeply concerned about the potential late night disturbance from the 1250 students to be concentrated on the site moving through our neighbourhood between the Student Union bar on the East Road campus and the new accommodation.
The City Council Planning Committee passed the plans with only our local Coucillor Kevin Blencowe and Independent Castle Coucillor John Hipkin, voting against. The permission granted was subject to a complicated agreement known as ‘Section 106’ of the Planning Act which allows the Council to charge developers for additional community facilities, open space and traffic schemes which need to be provided as a result of the scheme.
During most of 2009 we could obtain no information from the Council about the progress of these negotiations.
Ashwell had no money
We now know the reason for delay was that Ashwell had no money. The company accounts for 2008 (filed at Companies House in the autumn of 2009) revealed that its net asset value had been wiped out. It had a balance sheet deficit of £118.9m, which was money owed to Halifax Bank of Scotland and the Icelandic bank Kaupthing. It made a pretax loss of £116m
What is surprising is that in 2008 the Council paid top consultants to investigate the Cb1 scheme viability, but this confidential report was only given to the Councillors on the Planning Committee. The Association has asked for a copy under Freedom of Information but this has been refused.
Changes to the plan
In November 2009, without any further professional advice, Council officials recommended that the Planning Committee vary the planning permission and give Ashwell huge financial concessions. They also did not tell Councillors about Ashwells financial position despite the information being in the public realm.
Acting on this advice Councillors agreed that the phasing of the scheme could be radically altered. Ashwell representatives had always indicated that the new station square and the car and cycle park would be an early part to be completed. The new proposal divided the whole scheme into a number of coloured phases with Ashwell only agreeing to proceed with the so called ‘yellow phase’. This comprises:-
• The replacement of Great Eastern House, the office block on the corner of Tenison Road and Station Road, with a new 7 floor office building.
• The construction for Anglia Ruskin University students of privately owned and managed housing blocks for approximately 1000 students in the area to the south of the Station, and fronting onto Hills Road. This area is to be accessed via the new road being constructed for the Guided bus and via a new £3m link road being built and paid for by the County Council which will join Hills Road opposite Brooklands Avenue.
In exchange for this first phase Ashwell promised to pay the City Council
• A total of £644,000 to compensate for an almost total of green space round the student flats. (this money to be spent elsewhere in the City)
• A further £250,000 to the County Council to pay for traffic calming in the surrounding streets. This is deemed necessary to cope with the large numbers of pedestrians and cyclists who will be using Tenison Road to gain access to Anglia Ruskin University.
Free benefits changed
All the other ‘free’ benefits have been changed:-
• The bus interchange is now to be paid for with a public subsidy of £1.5 million.
• The cycle park deferred to an unknown date and eventually be paid for by the County Council at £750,000.
• The fabled station square ‘Gateway to Cambridge’ also deferred to an indefinite date.
• Private student housing is hugely profitable but even Ashwell reaped another subsidy. The contribution on this phase to the guided bus and local traffic schemes, worth £1.2 million, has been deferred. This will now only be paid when Ashwell demolish and rebuild all the office blocks on the South side of Station Road at unspecified date in the future.
A ‘new’ company
It has now emerged that during 2009 some of the Ashwell directors with help from Lloyds Bank organised to form a new company and start again. They used a little known financial device known as pre pack administration. This allows the Directors of a failing company to arrange to buy back the best assets as soon as the Company goes into administration. This is exactly what happened. Having secured a great deal from a gullible Council, Ashwell went into administration leaving huge debts to its bankers, a debt which is being paid for by the bank bailout from the taxpayer.
The new company Brookgate immediately bought the best Aswell assets, including the Cb1 site and the planning permission at current market value, in other words for a fraction of the price originally paid.
They can pay!
This means that the new refinanced company is in a position to pay its full due to the Council, but for reasons which are unexplained, incompetence perhaps, the Planning Dept. is refusing to re-negotiate the deal even thought the final papers have not yet been signed.
To hide all this Council have come up wit a smokescreen. Ashwell never owned the entire site, some still belongs to Network Rail, and they are selling this for £4.5m to Brookgate. This deal is not part of the Cb1 masterplan but the Council is now saying this money is to be used by the rail company to improve the station. This money is been added it to the total sum to make a poor deal look better than it really is.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that the Council has been out witted, and probably out gunned too, and has given away millions of pounds of public money. The improvement promised will not come for years (if ever) and Brookgate will cherry pick only the most profitable parts
Councillors on the East Area Committee of the City Council have raised the changes with the Director of Planning Mr. Payne and asked him to review the financial arrangements in view of the change ownership. He has refused.
Public meeting
There is also an opportunity to hear (and perhaps question) the Chief Planning Officer at a public meeting of the City Council East Area Committee on the 18th of February. This is being held at the Cherry Trees Club in St Matthews Street. The meeting starts at 7.00pm but since the Station Scheme is item 8 on the agenda he is unlikely to speak before 7.45pm
