Totnes Atmos Homes: Campaigner faces losing £1.1m in 'gazump'

Campaigners face losing more than £1m on an affordable homes project after they were "gazumped".

Totnes Community Development Society (TCDS) in Devon, planned to buy and develop the former dairy site and got nearly £200,000 from the government.

The Atmos site was sold in January to Essex firm Fastglobe for £1.35m.

TCDS said the sale was "outrageous" and is "exploring legal options" with South Hams District Council.

Fastglobe did not respond to a request for a comment and Saputo, who sold them the site, declined to comment.

The former Dairy Crest site next to Totnes railway station closed in 2007 and TCDS launched the Atmos project in 2014.

TCDS proposed to buy the site and build 99 homes including 62 affordable homes and 37 homes for "older people".

Its plans also included workspace for local businesses "to provide at least 160 jobs" as well as a health and wellbeing centre and a music and arts venue.

Atmos won support from Kevin McCloud, Brian Eno, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Eden Project founder Tim Smit.

A local referendum took place in in 2016 in which nearly 86% of those who took part voted in favour of the Atmos project.

The plans were approved by an inspector under the government's Community Right to Build (CRB) initiative and incorporated into the local planning blueprint, the Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan.

In 2019, Atmos was also offered £2.5m by the National Lottery to turn a Grade II listed building, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, into an arts centre on the site.

TCDS received nearly £200,000 from the government's Community Housing Fund for "pre-development work" on the building.

But in January Essex-based Fastglobe bought it.

It said in a statement at the time that the sale came "more than 12 years after Totnes residents first initiated their community ownership project which has struggled to progress".

TCDS director Rob Hopkins rejected the claim that it had struggled to progress and the site was sold "from under the community's feet".

He said TCDS had never had the opportunity to match the other buyer's offer after "negotiating in good faith" with Saputo for the site.

"We were gazumped at the last minute in the sale of the site," he said.

"But I think we have a very good chance of turning things around."

He said if the project did go ahead the town could expect £2-£3m in revenue from it every year and it would "inspire people up and down the land".

He said to donors who had contributed that "our hope is very strongly that their faith that they put into this will be rewarded in the long term when we deliver this project".

Total pre-development expenditure on Atmos was £1,106,061 at 31 December 2019, according to the latest accounts.

Auditors said because of the sale to Fastglobe there was "significant uncertainty" about the project's future.

Councillor Judy Pearce, executive member for development management, at South Hams District Council, said the authority was "keen to see the development of the site in accordance with the joint local plan" and it would be "working through the planning system with the land owners to bring that about".

She added that a compulsory purchase of the site was "not something that we would consider".

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