Purpose

he purchase of the land is required to
future-proof the highways service in this area of the County, due
to the inadequate operational space and accessible facilities at
Sturton Depot and to avoid significant investment in a site that is
no longer commercially viable from a property maintenance
perspective.

A risk to LCC of not making this decision is that the land will not
be available to build a Highways Depot. The opportunities within
this area of Lincolnshire are limited. The maintenance funding that
would have been allocated to Sturton by Stow has now been
reprioritised elsewhere.

The land is 2.11 acres in size and is valued at £685,750
which is deemed to be a fair and reasonable price in today’s
market by Kier on behalf of LCC corporate Property team. LCC
Property and LCC Highways are confident that the land would not
depreciate in value once purchased so the only investment that is
at risk, is the time and effort required to obtain the planning
application.

The landowners are requesting that this land purchase is agreed and
planning permission sought and granted before July 2025.

Decision

An Executive decision taken on the 5-9 August
2024 (I033990) approved the commencement of a project to proceed
with the land purchase, planning application and build out of a
replacement depot for Sturton by Stow.

Suitable land has been identified at Saxilby Enterprise Park.
Within the decision paper, indicative build out costs were
presented that are lower than the prices that have been established
on completion of RIBA Stage 1.
Following a discussion between LCC Property, Highway Service and
Finance at the Capital Review Group meeting held on the 14th March,
the recommendation is to proceed with RIBA stage 2, 3 and 4 in
order to obtain planning permission. At this point, a hold point
shall be inserted prior to the approval to build. This is to ensure
cost certainty as the build price has risen considerably and to
await the initial outcome of Local Government Reform.
The decision approves LCC to enter into a land purchase agreement
with the current landowners Castle Square and seek to obtain
planning approval for a Highways depot.

A future decision will be required once planning has been obtained
prior to commencing with RIBA stages 5,6 and 7. Taking this next
step will ensure that the Highway Service can operate from this
location in the future, and to allow the sale of Sturton by Stow
Highways Depot, the construction of a new depot and the relocation
of all Highways operations and co-location of LCC Highways and
Balfour Beatty (BB) colleagues in the future, in this area of the
County.