Partly-demolished bank to be sold by council

An agreement to sell a partly-demolished former bank has been made by a council as part of regeneration plans.

Fenland District Council bought the former Barclays bank in March, Cambridgeshire, for £750,000, paid a further £371,000 for its removal - and advertised the site for sale at £295,000.

Demolition ground to a halt in January after vibrations caused the adjoining building on Broad Street to shake and the council cabinet agreed to sell the site to an unnamed bidder, with the final price not being made public.

Chris Boden, Conservative council leader, said: "It was not our intention at any time that Fenland District Council would also receive any sort of financial return from this site."

Nigel Lambert, who runs Greetings card shop, previously told the BBC when the council bought the building that "plans were to knock the building down and build new shops with flats above".

His son Nick said the bank demolition had been "one of a catalogue of errors" during £8.4m regeneration work in March, with a lack of provision for parking and cycle lanes also proving a bugbear.

Boden told cabinet members on Monday that the site had been "surprisingly, unexpectedly and quite fortuitously successful financially".

"We also managed to save a significant amount of money, some £250,000 to £300,000, by utilizing the site for a centre for the people who were doing the work on Broad Street itself and the neighbouring areas," he added.

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