Harlington Parish Council (HPC) are aware there are many concerns over the ‘recent’ advertisement for the sale of what appears to be various green spaces, paths and roads around Lincoln Way, Brian Road and Goswell End Road. Initially, HPC appreciate that this causes alarm as to what could happen to these areas and how this will affect us as Residents.
It is worth noting that during the construction of residential properties it is quite normal that Developers will convey/sell as much land as they can to the purchasers of the properties that they build, however they will inevitably be left with bits of land that don’t reasonably sit with any one household and/or are for public use. These areas include, public open space, pathways, roads and other accessways. Part of most planning applications will require developers to ensure that these areas are built to a standard, fit for adoption by either the local authority or Highways England. Once the residential properties have all been built and sold the developer will typically wrap up the project by transferring these adoptable areas to the body ultimately responsible for maintaining them going forward.
The reality is that once developers complete their project this final stage can often be left incomplete. These residual bits of land ownership then become an ongoing liability for developers and ultimately at some point there is ‘housecleaning’ step where they will seek to offload these areas to a third party, most likely one of the above. The land typically has restrictions on its use, for example a path must always be a path and provide access to the public, as is the case for any green spaces and roads. As such, there is little value on the land for a private purchaser and as such these areas will ultimately be gifted to Highways or the Local Authority. The price on these advertised areas is typically based on a value to cover the legal costs of the land transfer exercise.
Currently, the areas concerned are maintained by a combination of the Central Beds Council, Highways England and Harlington Parish Council. It is anticipated that these maintenance commitments will continue following the land transfer.
HPC will continue to monitor the sale of the land in this case and update you as to any progress; however, we expect this type of transaction to take a few months at the very least.