The Village Store

On Saturday evening 24th November, Robert Goldsmith circulated the following to all known BARA e-mail addresses:

Dear Bara,

I don’t know if you know but Abdul could be closed down soon.

The council are telling him that they can evict him, apply for change of use
and, once they have have ‘received permission’, they can sell the property.

My concern is that a community asset is being treated by our council as a
profit making opportunity without regard to its real value.

Given the history of the adjacent pub I think it necessary to question the
postman, who is clearly calling for a second time.

An item for the agenda, please.

Robert Goldsmith and Marcus Kirby
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I felt this was rather misleading so, I responded with this clarification of the situation, which is complex -
but I have been trying to find a way through with Abdul and his wife for many weeks:

Dear BARA member households,

This is really not an accurate or fair picture:

For example, Mr Goldsmith writes:

"a community asset is being treated by our council as a profit making
opportunity without regard to its real value."

The problem IS its real value and its not just a community asset but also a
Council owned property leased to Abdul and his family.

Abdul has a commercial lease with residential rights attached.

But that lease ends in the Summer of 2008. A new commercial lease could be
granted and Abdul has approached the Council to see if he can negotiate a way
for him to renew and retain. I have been trying to help.

The two central problems are:

1. the phenominal spiralling value of property on our streets (with houses
selling for £1m and more), which makes the prospective commercial rent a big
hurdle. The Council has a legal obligation to achieve commercial returns on
its assets and this ultimately reflects on all our Council Tax bills.

2. The central problem big issue is that the community wants the amenity of
The Village Store, but collectively they do their main shopping at Tesco etc,
making Abdul's turnover far less than it used to and could be - hence limiting
Abdul's ability to fund stock and his capability to pay a commercial rent.

Notwithstanding, the top man head of property finance took the time to
personally meet with Abdul and his wife, with me there, on October 25th and he
is investigating with Camden's legal team to try to see if there's a way forward.

Unfortunately, I can't be at BARA's meeting but my colleague Councillor Ben
Rawlings will be.

Regards,

Cllr Paul Braithwaite