Grand theft unopposed: The Compulsory Purchase Order of the North Wales Hospital.

It is reported that the proposed compulsory purchase order of the former North Wales Hospital by the local council awaits approval by the Welsh Assembly Government. The conditions for such approval being granted are quite clear. The local council must show that there is "a reasonable likelihood" of the (listed) building being restored using funds from the sell-off of housing land.  As much as the ongoing demise of this once magnificent site pains me, I hope and pray that this approval is not granted.

Since the closure of the site in 1995, that same local council (albeit with a different name in 1995) turned down a succession of requests to redevelop the site and build housing. It seems a bit rich then to think that having turned down everybody else from developing the site, the council is now going to muscle in and do precisely that. Whichever way you look at this, this is either arrogance or an abuse of power. Given that they have recently had to spend a reported £930,000 just to make safe the listed building after years of vandalism, there is an argument to suggest that they would now look stupid if they didn't pursue a CPO. But it is also important to bear in mind that they spent that money (previously held in a bond) before being granted a CPO to buy the building. That is either supreme confidence or it was a decision made with some form of prior knowledge. The crux of this matter is this: Did they choose to spend the money to temporarily repair that roof or were they legally obliged to? Since they were not the legal owners at the time of the temporary repair, it is hard to present an argument that they had to do it. The greater likelihood is that they chose to make the temporary repair safe in the knowledge that the CPO would inevitably go their way as has happened up and down the UK with this and other councils over recent years. This does not condone the behaviour of the current owners but it does question strongly the disproportionate power being afforded to local councils.

The council have already showed their hand. They claim that any compensation due to the current owners under any proposed CPO would be offset against the cost of repairs. Given that they can legally withhold any CPO payments to the current owners for a period of up to six years anyway, its heads they win and tails they win - for a change. How? They admit that the sale of development land would offset the cost of any existing and future repairs necessary to comply with the terms of a CPO. Convenient. 

We can't turn back the clock now but it is galling to think how badly this whole thing has been handled from day one. The recent consultation with local residents in the Denbigh area was little more than a perfunctory tick box exercise in which any objections were just ignored. Which only begs the question: Why bother with public consultations if they are just going to do as they please anyway? At best, this sort of behaviour is disingenuous but at worst it is corporate arrogance with no evidence of any discernable accountability.

CADW described the former hospital as "the finest purpose-built hospital in Wales". That being the case, how on earth have so many agencies been allowed to step back to observe its painful demise over the last 18 years? It is really hard to think of any other listed building of this magnitude being allowed to deteriorate so blatantly for so long. It is reported that all items of real value are long gone. Although I don't condone such actions, that hospital has been "free at the point of access" to anyone who could be bothered to go there. So any purported plans to restore the front to it's former condition are literally pie in the sky because they will never be able to reposition the original parts which have since been stolen. At best, they will seek to create a sympathetic replica which is not quite the same thing.

If I were one of the former owners from the intervening years, I would be feeling more than a bit aggrieved right now. They bought the site in good faith and presented their plans for development as they did so. One by one they were roundly turned down by the very same organisation which now seeks to do just that. Unbelievable. I have long believed that local councils in our country have too much power. This is proof positive.

Of course, on a final note, the biggest scandal in all of this is the obvious missed opportunity. Given that the decision had been made to relocate mental health care to the community, the hospital in 1995 automatically became the obvious choice should there ever be a need for new council offices. Anybody and everybody who I spoke to at the time from Denbigh were in agreement on this. Instead, they chose to build new offices part financed by granting planning permission for a supermarket which has subsequently seen the local high street more notable for the number of shops vacant than the number of shops thriving. On any level, history will never justify that decision. Even if they didn't like the idea of using the hospital for council offices (and I have spoken to many people who cite this as the main reason for declining such a move), there was no need for the catalogue of bad decisions that followed.

So why am I so against CPO. I'll give you an example which is still ongoing as I write. For three and a half years now, neighbouring Conwy Council has been in ownership of the former Colwyn Bay Market Hall under a CPO. As I write, not a penny has been paid to the former owners. In addition, the following items have been recovered by the council after they chose to demolish the building earlier this year - without consulting the former owners naturally:-

90 tonnes of wood, 35 tonnes of timber, 70,000 bricks, 20 tonnes of steel, 10 tonnes of light iron, 0.5 tonnes of lead, 0.5 tonnes of wire and last but not least, 1,800 tones of hardcore.I'm not a builder but I reckon that little lot would amount to a lot of money.

How do I know all this? Because they have actually published it on their website for all to see - they haven't divulged that as yet they haven't paid a bean for the building though. Given that this CPO related to a public property, I also don't see the money from these materials being used to bring down the cost of council tax for example. We can rest assured that they will seek to drag it out for the full six years before they are legally obliged to actually pay for what they have sequestered - scandalous.

This whole story is an absolute indictment on the Britain of today. In today's Britain, the power base is firmly with local government and we are seemingly powerless to do anything about it. For all those people who worked so hard and gave so much to make that hospital as famed as it was, they deserved better. For the people of Denbigh who have seen their town centre become a collection of charity shops (albeit very good and worthy shops) and vacant premises, they deserved better. For the councillors who made the decisions along the way, they could and should have done better for the town they represent. A CPO will be the death knell for this hospital. The land will be squandered in anattempt to build as many homes as possible which will create levels of traffic for which the town is not designed. In addition, local services such as primary schools, secondary schools, doctors and dentists will struggle to cope if there are anything like the reported new numbers coming in. And all this will be served by a road which is more suited to a horse and cart than it is to those leves of cars. And all of this presupposes that these new homes will sell anyway. As I cast an eye around the place where I live, I can only wonder where all these people are going to find the levels of employment to pay their considerable mortgages. It is highyl ironic that the numbers of houses for sale in the town at the current time has seldom been higher. I and many others pointed out all the above when "consulted" but it appears once again as though we might have been beter served saving our energy.