Coun Roger Gambba-Jones, portfolio holder for place, told The Voice around £20,000 has now been spent on clearing up the site and pursuing the owners to do something with it. A charge has been placed on the property to allow recovery of that money when it is sold.
He said: “Residents can be confident cabinet members on their behalf are absolutely cheesed off with this blight on the conservation area in a very prominent area of Spalding.
“We wish to use this as a demonstration of our resolve to deal with such sites across the whole of South Holland.”
Talks of forcing sale of the site have cropped up numerous times since the council first moved in to clean it up in 2014, following inaction by the owners.
Coun Gambba-Jones said he was sorry action could not be taken more quickly but not about the caution the council is showing in ensuring it follows procedure to allow it to recover any taxpayers’ money invested in turning the site around – procedure that involves a two-way exchange via solicitors.
He added: “It’s a long and drawn-out, expensive process.
“The reason it is going to cabinet is to give them a number of options to consider, anything from the status quo – continuing to put pressure on the owners by writing to them and carrying out remedial work, all the way through to all the other options that exist.
“We are not prepared to tolerate that ongoing situation. We have a duty to the taxpayer to do whatever we can to recover their money.”
Coun Gambba-Jones said the site is just one of a list of sites the council is still pursuing action on. Others include the former Royal Mail sorting office in The Crescent, Spalding; old Johnson Hospital, in Priory Road, Spalding; Bridge Hotel, in Bridge Road, Sutton Bridge and The Bull Hotel in Market Place, Long Sutton.
Any decisions taken on Tuesday will be made public.
