Southampton City Council to sell river leisure area to water firm
The terms of the sale were approved privately on Tuesday, after the press and public were excluded from a council cabinet meeting.
Environmental campaigner Christelle Blunden, who joined a small protest outside, said activists only found out about the plan last week.She said: "We'd like to see the proposals in the public domain so that they can be scrutinised."Ms Blunden, who leads the council-backed campaign for Southampton to be declared a National Park City, called for "deeply binding clauses" to protect the site, which is vital for Atlantic salmon.Recently, the Wessex Rivers Trust warned that salmon were at risk of extinction locally because of barriers in the river.Liberal Democrat councillor Thomas Gravatt said people were concerned about selling to "a company with a track record of dumping sewage into our precious chalk streams".
However, councillor Toqeer Kataria, in charge of leisure, said he had no misgivings: "The proposed purchase is being driven by Southern Water officers on the clean water side of the business who have been tasked with delivering river restoration projects to support drinking water abstraction." Councillor Simon Letts, in charge of finance, said the council had been subsidising Woodmill by approximately £155,000 a year, while work to maintain the water courses was likely to cost close to £2m.The sale terms will be finalised by 1 September, according to a council document.It said the site could later be re-sold by the new owners, but only with a covenant "restricting the use of the property to be used as a youth camping, water sports, fishing establishment".The mill building will be retained by the city council, along with current tenant Above Board, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.Southern Water and Southampton City Scouts have been approached for comment.
Additional reporting by Jason Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter
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