South Holland District Council is ‘toothless’ in dealing with owners of grotspots

A compulsory purchase order could be the ‘next avenue’ to deal with a prominent eyesore site as current laws leave councillors ‘toothless’.

Members of South Holland District Council were told that owners of the former Johnson Hospital in Spalding are not interested in selling the derelict Priory Road site and that there is limited action officers can take.

Last year the authority introduced a Derelict and Untidy Sites policy which gave the authority’s asset team a ‘a strategic direction and a clear path for reporting and contacting landowners and landlords’ of untidy commercial properties.

However this document failed to give the ‘asset team any powers for acquiring derelict sites’ but the council’s planning enforcement team do have some statutory powers at their disposal.

The council’s Policy Development Panel was told that the policy had enabled officers to make contact with the owners of the old hospital, The Bull Hotel in Long Sutton and they are attempting to speak to Majestic Bingo Hall owners.

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Officers are also hoping to get the National Valuation Office to change the classification of the Johnson Hospital, which was removed from the business rating list.

Coun Rob Gibson says that the current laws are not helping the council to bring these eyesore sites back into use.

He said: “We are toothless - the law is really not on our side. I would love to see that building back in use but the law is not there to help us and assist us to achieve that. Nothing is happening (at the Johnson) as it is not costing them anything in rates.

“If it was costing them, they could think about it more.

“How many other sites are playing this little game and getting away with it?”

Coun James Le Sage said: “The public in the area are concerned about this derelict site is there no way our teeth could be a little bit sharper?

“I think the big bugbear for South Holland residents is that hospital or they not engaging or doing something.”

It was explained to the panel in the report that the aim of the untidy sites policy is to work with the landowner to ‘bring the property into a reasonable and viable condition again’.

Strategic Operational and Property Manager Marc Wheelan told the committee: “We can only encourage and that is literally all this policy does.

“They (owners of the Johnson) are not interested in selling. We have tried to engage. It’s shame as there is not much else to be done.”

He later said: “Compulsory purchase orders have got more complex over the years. It’s not an open and shut case but that would be the next avenue to go down.

Deputy chairman of the committee, Coun Laura Eldridge questioned how the council could justify a CPO with the Johnson where there are other sites such as the Bridge Hotel and Bull Hotel.

Mr Wheelan has tried to get the Valuation Office to have a look again at its classification of the former Johnson Hospital but told the meeting he was getting some ‘push back’.

He also questioned if the policy would sit better with planning enforcement as they have more powers than the assets team but there was some resistance to this suggestion by Assistant Director for Wellbeing and Community, Emily Spicer, who wanted the officers to continue to deal with these types of issues in their ‘matrix’ style.

The meeting was also told that the new owners of the derelict Bridge Hotel in Sutton Bridge have still not registered with the Land Registry – more than a year after it was bought. The dilapidated hotel was sold at an online auction in November 2022 for a £181,000 - far higher than the £80,000 to £100,000 guide price.

Allan Beal said that it was a ‘shame’ that there were empty homes in the villages and the surrounding area when there is a ‘housing crisis’.

What do you think? Should the council buy the former Johnson Hospital? Post a comment below.