This blog is maintained by John King, known on forums around the Teesside area as ‘Rockliffe_Rover’, a vocal online campaigner for a better deal for the town of Middlesbrough.
John is not affiliated to any political party or person but is a keen advocate of independent councillors in local government.
Interesting blog!
http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2012/04/23/middlesbrough-council-in-sell-off-to-raise-5-5m-84229-30820001/
This story has caught my attention. I am curious to know how much property or land holdings middlesborough council has. Is there a way of finding the full information in particular what are the current valuation of properties being offered for sale?
Surely if I as a tax payer have paid for middlesbrough council to purchase these I should be made aware what their net present value is and how much middlesbrough council is anticipating to sell each of these properties.
Why were these properties not sold in the boom period instead of borrowing the £15 million for gresham demolition. Would this not make sense i.e. sell one asset to purchase another although be it the gresham area land would not be worth what the cost of demolition was.
To me it doe not make sense to borrow, purchase property or land in the boom period and then sell during recession?
Hi Nam,
You can submit an “Freedom of Information” request to the council via a website called “What Do They Know?” click here to visit the site and sign up.
It’s really easy, you select Middlesbrough Borough Council, write down what information you require and they send it in. The real beauty of the site is that they then archive the results for anyone to find in the future.
I would sugggest that you are quite specific in your question, asking how much property or land the council owns is a wide scope. If you only want to know about certain types of land, for instance, land which the council currently deems as ‘available for disposal’ or for sale (not the same thing, btw!).
Be sure to let us all know what you find out!
Regards,
John
Hi John
Thanks for the info, I will let you know what response I get. I think I need to do a little bit more research on the topic and not to waste my FOI request by making it too broad.
I must still stress it cant be too difficult to provide someone a full breakdown of the property and land holdings. Surely it is just a matter of having a few excel spreadsheets with a list of the addresses divided up into residential/commercial/land.
Anyways going to give this what do they know site a try. Thanks.
P.S. Can anyone explain to me how do I post on the Home page like everyone else or comment on the stories?
Hi Nam,
Each article has its own ‘Leave a comment’ button at the end of it. Simply click on it to leave your thoughts.
Regards,
John.