Oldmeldrum, Bourtie & Daviot Community Council
Exploring the potential for a Community Asset Transfer – Site of Former Westbank Care Home
The Community Council is interested to know if there are any individuals groups or organisations locally who would be interested in taking on the task of applying for a Community Asset Transfer of the site and setting up and running a community asset of any type on this site.
Background
CC members recently attended an online meeting with representatives of Aberdeenshire Council. The topic of discussion was to explore the potential for a Community Asset Transfer (CAT) of the former Westbank Home site to a community group.
The following are the key points from that meeting
The site
- The building is decommissioned. All services have been disconnected except the alarms, and the building is empty and boarded up.
- The Council are anxious to demolish the building and dispose of the site. This is because of the ongoing costs associated with a vacant property. These costs include rates, maintenance, cost of vandalism, cost of risks associated with public liability.
- The site is owned by the council and they believe they have a clean title and are entitled to dispose of the site on the open market.
- The site includes the building and the surrounding grounds.
Community Asset Transfer
- Community Asset Transfer (CAT) is a process by which a council asset is leased or sold to a community group. The process is governed by the Community Empowerment Act. https://www.gov.scot/publications/community-empowerment-scotland-act-summary/
- Aberdeenshire Council have a process governing the transfer of assets to the community which can be found here. https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/communities-and-events/asset-transfer/
- More information is available from the Development Trusts Association here https://dtascommunityownership.org.uk/community/community-asset-transfer
Note that …
- The Community Council itself cannot apply for a CAT
- CAT is not available to any commercial business.
- A properly constituted community organisation is be required to make any application and to develop the site for community use according to a business plan.
- There is support for CAT from within the Council and there are dedicated officers whose job it is to assist community groups should they wish to go forward
- Any valid application received from a properly constituted community group would be considered by the Council’s Asset Transfer Steering Group (Formartine)
- While any group would need to be in a position to purchase/lease the site the purchase price would be offset to some extent by the Community Value of the proposed use case. This could mean that the land might be purchased for less than market value if the group’s business plan was sufficiently strong.
What’s next …
The Community Council is interested to know if there are individuals groups or organisations locally who would be interested in taking on the task of applying for a CAT and setting up and running a community asset of any type on this site.
Time is of the essence. The Council are moving ahead with their plans to market the site and will be putting proposals for the demolition of the buildings to a near future budget meeting. In the absence of any suitable timely application the building will be demolished and site will most likely be sold for development.
The Community Council will host a meeting of interested parties in order to help get the ball rolling.
If you would like to express an interest in any form of Community Asset Transfer arrangement for this site please get in touch initially with our secretary Jan at janchalmers1@hotmail.com