Sold for a loss: Another bad deal by the Mackintosh regime
Northampton Borough Council sold the bus depot for a £200,000 loss to Church's on the same day it bought it
By Sarah Ward
West Northamptonshire Council has revealed that its predecessor council did a property deal with shoe firm Church's that led to it shelling out more than £227,000 of taxpayer cash to help the private company.
The back-to-back deal in April 2014, in which the council bought the bus depot and then immediately sold it on to the shoe company, was intended to regenerate the first bus site in St James, Northampton, but seven years later the prime town centre plot in the Waterside Regeneration area is boarded up and there are no signs of development. Church’s say there have been ‘unforeseen delays’ pointing to Brexit and the pandemic.