Council to sell off Grade-II listed power station to plug £27million budget gap
By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter
A Grade-II listed power station and several car parks have been included among a list of assets a council intends to sell off to plug a £27million budget gap.
Greenwich council described the assets as being “functionally obsolete” and said the sales would help the council remain financially stable.
The Grade-II listed Plumstead Power station opened in 1903 to power street lighting and local housing before being repurposed as a council depot in 1965.
The authority claimed it has always wanted to bring the structure back into use and recommended it be rented on a long lease of roughly 125 years, with an upfront payment.
Car parks owned by the council in Abery Street, Old Dover Road and in Charlton Village are also planned to be sold off. The land could be attractive for property developers given their locations, the council said, and the car parks would remain open until sales were agreed.
Other assets to be pawned off include Thistlebrook Industrial Estate, the former caretaker’s house on King George Street for James Wolfe School, toilet blocks on Knee Hill and Rodmere Street and two terraced residential houses on Ormiston Road.
A further 23 sites have been earmarked for letting including units in the Anchorage Point industrial estate, café spaces in Woolwich’s new leisure centre, and the borough’s old town hall.
A Greenwich council spokesman said: “We are a well-managed council, but to remain financially stable, so we can continue to provide the services that residents deserve, we must make the best use of the land and the properties that we own.
“Our priority is to ensure we get the best possible results and deliver good value for money to benefit all our residents.”
They noted the authority had made £33.7million of savings this year to balance its budget, with a deficit of £27million predicted for next year.
The plans to sell off the council’s assets will be discussed at a cabinet meeting for Greenwich council on October
Pictured top: Plumstead power station is planned to be sold off under the current plans (Picture: Google Street View)