A Curious Option on Councillor Bawa's SMBC Land Purchase!

May I say that I can only write this blog with your help and this line of investigation arose from a phone call from a delightful senior citizen with a razor-sharp memory. Thank you for this and the other information!

There is a complicated situation here but the gist of the story is that Sandwell Council ITSELF applied for outline planning permission to build three houses at Bridge Street, Oldbury in 1998 (application DD/98/34867). Happily Labour felt able to accede to it's own application.

 It is not possible for me to unravel the exact chain of ownership yet and there are a couple of oddities that arise but there was most definitely a transfer of one of the three plots to Labour Cllr Babu Singh Bawa on 7th April, 2000. Some time ago Bawa was involved in a limited company called the Self Builder Association (Oldbury) Limited which has long since been dissolved. The reason I mention this is that the Land Registry title referring to 17 Bridge Street says that the same transfer contained an option for Labour Sandwell Council to repurchase the land. It is possible (and I put it no higher than that) a self-build was mooted. It is also at least possible that this odd arrangement was designed to suppress the sale price but it is improbable that someone now with the Order of the British Empire would have been involved in anything untoward. You will see at the bottom of this page a Freedom of Information request I have submitted in respect of this "deal".

Cllr Bawa then applied for full planning permission for a detached house. The Sandwell Council website has this under 19 Bridge Street but the application was in respect of land adjacent to number 19 - what became 17 Bridge Street (DC/00/36687) and, unsurprisingly, this was granted by the comrades.

But then things take a peculiar turn again since our esteemed Councillor did nothing and let the planning permission lapse. He then submitted a new application (DC/07/47638) in 2007 which, again, was granted. But what was this option to repurchase and why did Labour Sandwell not exercise it if the land was simply a vacant plot for SEVEN years. I think we should be told, don't you?

Curiously Cllr Bawa appears to then drop out of the picture. I am assuming that the shifty socialists didn't actually buy back the land and that Bawa sold the land on since a Mr H.S. Aujla then re-applied for planning permission for the same plot. The house was then built. Whether Bawa made a tidy profit is unknown. Perhaps he will hasten to tell us?

There were two other plots with outline planning permission and, again, the position is complicated since there appear to be two separate transfers by SMBC but suffice to say here that at least a part of these plots was transferred to a Mr Menlap (possibly Melap) Singh and a Mr Simon Richard Foster on 4th May, 2001. But it seems that there was a quick shift in ownership since a planning application was jointly made by a Mr M. Singh and a Mr XXXXX (a property professional) (DC/01/37955) which was varied in 2002 by application DC/02/39340. Planning permission was granted for two houses which were subsequently built as Nos 11 and 15 Bridge Street (there was no "unlucky" 13). Mr M. Singh seems to have dropped out of the ownership chain at some point but it is specifically stated in the planning applications that he is not related to Cllr Bawa.

Here is the FoI Request dated 23rd October, 2014:

Dear Sirs,

On 7th April, 2000 you conveyed a plot of land at Bridge Street, Oldbury to Babu Singh Bawa. Curiously the transaction appears to have included an option to repurchase the land.

Please state:

1. The extent of the plot sold;

2. The sale price;

3. Whether Babu Singh Bawa was a Councillor as at the date of the transaction;

4. Whether SMBC did, in fact, repurchase the land. If not, why not?

This event was some time ago but please state any efforts made to market the land, details of other offers received etc.

Yours faithfully,

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!

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