Sale of prominent council building falls through

Elgan Hearn – Local democracy reporter

The sale of a prominent council building in mid-Wales has fallen through, councillors were told.

The admission came at a Powys County Council meeting on Thursday, July 10 during a fiery debate on a motion to scrap a £10 million annual asset sales target and putting a pause on selling off county farms – the motion was supported by the majority of councillors following a vote later on.

As he tried to defend the £10 million annual sales target council leader Cllr Jake Berriman (Liberal Democrat) told councillors that the expected sale of the Gwalia had fallen thorough.

The historic Grade II (two) building in Llandrindod Wells had been for sale with an asking price of £250,000 and had been used by the council as a library, registration services and an office.

In April in his previous cabinet role Cllr Berriman had apologised as the capital receipts received for the last financial year would be just over £1 million, well short of the target.

Target

.Cllr Berriman said: “You know we’re not meeting that target, only this week I heard the sad news that the Gwalia which we had secured a sale on, has fallen through.

“We have difficulties of moving properties on and we’re actively looking at all our assets, we’re doing that to invest in education and highways projects etc.”

He warned that not hitting the sales target would put an extra 0.5 per cent on the Council Tax bills annually which amounts to 2.5 per cent over a five-year period.

Cllr Berriman said: “That £10 million is worth £560,000 of not borrowing money a year.”

Cllr Gareth D Jones (Powys Independents group – Llanfair Caereinion and Llanerfyl) who brought the motion to council, said that this was an even greater reason to vote to pause the sale of farms and scrap the £10 million target.

Cllr Jones said: “What makes these county farms more vulnerable is that you have just said that the Gwalia sale has fallen through, so we still need to get this money under the current policy we have.

“That means a wealthy person can come forward and put in a bid for one of our prime assets.

“That has happened and was accepted previously.”

Uproar

Cllr Jones was alluding to the deal to buy 218 of farm estate land near Welshpool for £5million which had been agreed in by the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet in a confidential session in September 2023.

The sale had caused uproar amongst opposition councillors and in January councillors were told that deal had fallen thought.

Also, in January Cllr Berriman said that the the deal for the Gwalia was being finalised and would shave off £140,000 from this year’s council budget.

The Gwalia Hotel opened in 1902 and was a fashionable spa venue in the early Edwardian years.

It was sold at auction to Radnorshire County Council and the council officers and their departments, moved into the former hotel in 1950.

In 1974, the building became the headquarters of Radnorshire District Council and became a customer service point for Powys council in 1996.