Stow care home sale given go-ahead (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Sale of former Stow-on-the-Wold care home Ashton House has been given the go-ahead by Gloucestershire County Council’s cabinet

1:47pm Friday 2nd November 2012 in Cotswolds news By Ian Craig

THE sale of a former care home in Stow-on-the-Wold is to go ahead.

At last week’s meeting of Gloucestershire County Council’s Conservative-run cabinet it was agreed to sell Ashton House, which closed earlier this year, to a private buyer.

At the meeting, which was held in Andoversford’s Village Hall rather than Gloucester’s Shire Hall as part of the council’s efforts to involve rural communities in the decision-making processes, members heard the council-owned building was now surplus to requirements.

Residents of Ashton House, the only non-private care home in Stow, had been moved to the newly-built Jubilee Lodge in nearby Bourton-on-the-Water.

Cabinet member for finance and change Cllr Ray Theodoulou (Con, East Cotswolds) said it had been agreed to recommend a bid which included building a new doctor’s surgery at the site.

“This reduces the capital sum we might receive as a receipt but we believe this is important for the community,” he said.

“We are hoping to get £1.7m for this site and it looks like we might achieve a little more than that.”

He added that a bid which did not include a doctor’s surgery would be considered, but if this was the this case the buyer would be asked to pay more.

After an outcry when the sale was announced, a public meeting was held in June in which GCC was accused of having little regard for the needs of residents.

At the meeting the cabinet heard that 12 bids had been made from the site, and a joint bid by GP Dr Tim Healy and a property developer was named as the preferred offer.

Cllr Theodoulou added the council was determined to ensure the community would get the greatest possible benefit from the sale.

“Everything that can be done is being done,” he said.

“Clearly there are issues such as planning which are out of our control.”

Stow mayor Cllr Robin Jones said the Town Council had previously objected to the sale but the matter was now out of their hands.