Chale Parish Council must find more than £700,000 if it wants to take over the former village shop.
One of the latest turns in the Chale Green Stores saga has seen Chale Parish Council (CPC) put forward as a potential bidder for the former shop, post office and flat.
The store was closed in October 2019 following a lengthy battle between the parish council and the owner of the building, Vern Tyerman. The shop was unviable according to Mr Tyerman, but the parish council were said to have the funding in place to buy the store before the asking price was raised, meaning the potential sale fell through.
Earlier this year, the store was made an Asset of Community Value and an intention to market or dispose of the stores was received by the Isle of Wight Council in June. This means CPC has until 28th December to find £705,000 to buy the site and bring it back to community use.
Planning permission was previously granted to turn the once-village hotspot into 3 houses, despite 62 objections and concerns about common land and contaminated land being used.
The parish has the choice of buying 1 or all 3 plots of Chale Green Stores with the most expensive, original 1910 building and shop space costing £375,000. The second and third plots consisting of the single-storey shop building costing £230,000 and the car park area with space and permission for a three-bedroom cottage, up for £100,000.
CPC has been discussing how to raise the funds for the purchase and how to utilise the space should it be successful.
It is also asking ward councillor, Councillor Claire Critchison, to call-in the decision of planning officers who granted planning permission as it has issues with the contaminated land and ‘unlawful use of common land for private gain’. It says those points were not adequately addressed in the planning conditions, which only stipulates a study should be done to determine the previous use of the land, as it was once a petrol station, and the ground conditions are assessed before development can start.
An informative notification was only issued on the matter of the common land, saying it should be investigated before any works commence.
The parish council has also submitted a letter of complaint to the Isle of Wight Council’s planning department about the decision.
The owner of the store, Mr Tyerman, was contacted for a comment on multiple issues but declined to respond, saying it was a private matter and ‘the facts were the facts, and if anyone delves further they would find them’.
Earlier this week, mobile fish and chip van The Jolly Fryer was stopped from serving on the land at front of the shop. However, it was soon made clear that it is common land and therefore The Jolly Fryer will be back from Wednesday 18th August.
just take it out of the councils petty cash just make sure you dispose of the brown envelopes properly
So IW Council grants unpopular, unnecessary and possibly illegal Planning Permission and guess what? the price rockets, thus disadvantaging Chale Parish Counil and the people of Chale.
The smell of corruption is rank. Let’s hope Cllr Critchison is not impeded in her bid for calling-in. If she is, we will know for certain how the land lies.
Unnecessary???? There is a housing shortage! Yes the places they are building are all the wrong places. I agree with you there. But we need more housing, if not all our children and grandchildren will have to move to the mainland. Leaving no one to supply the essential services the island needs.
No one disagrees that houses are needed for locals at a reasonable price but of course what happens is it gets sold to the person who has the most money. I don’t believe that a sale figure can be imposed as part of planning to avoid this so sorry you will not get affordable properties for our children and grandchildren at this site ,unless you get a legal undertaking at the start.
People don’t live forever. People die and property gets passed on. There never used to be this constant call for more houses in the old days. Maybe because people lived differently then and not so self centered as they are today.