A Grade II listed power station and several council-owned car parks have been included among a list of assets Greenwich Council intends to sell off in an effort to plug a £27 million budget gap.
The authority described the assets as being ‘functionally obsolete’ and said the sales would help the council remain financially stable.
The Grade II listed Plumstead Power station was opened in 1903 to power street lighting and local housing using domestic rubbish before being repurposed as a council depot in 1965. The authority claimed it has always wanted to bring the structure back into use and recommended it be rented on a long lease of roughly 125 years with an upfront payment.
Car parks owned by the council on Abery Street, Old Dover Road and in Charlton Village are also planned to be sold off. Greenwich Council said the car parks were not well used and the installation of cameras in two of the sites had generated additional costs. The authority said the land could be attractive for property developers given their locations and the car parks would remain open until sales were agreed.
Thistlebrook Industrial Estate would be pawned off under the current plans given its high running costs. The former tram shelters on Well Hall Road have also been listed for potential sale as they were claimed to be in a poor condition and contain asbestos. The council said: “A previous survey estimated it would cost at least half a million to refurbish the shelters, which the council would not be able to recover through future rent.”
The former caretaker’s house on King George Street for James Wolfe School will be put up for sale as it would reportedly cost thousands of pounds to carry out essential refurbishment works. The measures would also see three former caretaker’s houses at primary schools across the borough remaining in the council’s possession but being repurposed for use as temporary accommodation.
Toilet blocks on Knee Hill and Rodmere Street are also to be put on the market, alongside two terraced residential houses on Ormiston Road, and Miller House on Devonshire Drive. The locally listed building currently houses the borough’s mortuary and coroner’s office. It’s unclear what would happen to those services if the building was sold.
Alongside the properties to be sold, 23 sites have been earmarked for letting including units in the Anchorage Point industrial estate, café spaces in Woolwich’s new leisure centre and market pavilion as well as the borough’s old town hall.
A Greenwich Council spokesperson said: “We are a well-managed council, but to remain financially stable, so we can continue to provide the services that residents deserve, we must make the best use of the land and the properties that we own. We have 788 sites totalling 6.3million square feet and although we have a high occupancy rate, 93 per cent, due to high operating and maintenance costs, we are not covering our costs. Our priority is to ensure we get the best possible results and deliver good value for money to benefit all our residents.”
The spokesperson said the sales were being carried out in light of cuts in funding from central government since 2010 alongside rising costs for social care and temporary accommodation. They noted the authority had made £33.7m of savings this year to balance its budget, with a deficit of £27m predicted for next year. The plans to sell off the council’s assets will be discussed at a cabinet meeting for Greenwich Council on October 16.
