Something is Rotten in the District Of Shepway

“We will a tale unfold, whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres.” WS

Oportunitas Ltd is owned by SDC and has 4 Councillors as Directors: they are

Cllr Susanna Elena Govett,[UKIP]      

susie.govett@shepway.gov.uk

Cllr Richard Anthony Pascoe [Tory]      richard.pascoe@shepway.gov.uk

Mr Roger James Wilkins [Tory]          

roger.wilkins@shepway.gov.uk

Cllr  Ann Elizabeth Berry [Tory]           

AnnCllr.Berry@shepway.gov.uk

Oportunitas Ltd [see: Oportunitas 1] will in the near future purchase

No 15 Grace Hill, Folkestone. CT20 1HA. – Front is Black,

rear of No 15.

It will be residential on the upper floor/s and office space on the ground floor. The office space so it has been rumoured may well be seventeen thousand a year to rent.

In Feb 2015 Alliance Building Company Contracts Ltd paid 105,000 pounds for the property.  Their lenders were Lloyds Bank The Title Number is K238324.

The Directors of the company are:

Mr Leo Livingstone Griggs & Mr Simon Thomas Grover.

Mr Leo Livingstone Griggs is a Conservative Parish Councillor for Sandgate and mixes with the likes of Robert Bliss, former leader of SDC and Jan Holben Chairman of the Shepway District Council. Both Mr Bliss and Ms Holben are both Sandgate Parish Councillors.

Alliance Building Company Contracts Ltd  – Leo and his other Director have spent a rumoured 240,000 pounds in sprucing up the building. A SDC Document made available on the 1/09/15 states very clear 15 Grace Hill will cost half a million pound  when the sale goes ahead.

The offer of half a million was made and accepted at the end of July/Beginning of August 2015. When did SDC and Oportunitas make their offer? How did SDC & Oportunitas arrive at a figure of £500,000? Reed Rains valuation that’s how, before the building work was even finished. When did SDC and Oportunitas first discuss the option of making an offer? And when was the first contact with Mr Leo Griggs, Sandgate Parish Cllr and part owner of Alliance Building Company Contracts Ltd made by anyone from SDC or Oportunitas?

It seems odd to the team at Shepwayvox that a Tory Parish Cllr who mixes with a sitting SDC Tory Cllr – who are in the know about Oportunitas Ltd, should sell a house that has gone from one hundred & five thousand in mid February 2015, to half a million in July/Aug 2015 to SDC’s company Oportunitas Ltd, prior to completion.  Might this be a case of Crony Capitalism?  It might well appear that something is rotten in the District of Shepway.

15 Grace Hill received planning permission – Y15/0730/SH – on the plans it states very clearly that the upper dormer window at the front of the building is to be “restored”. Now a member of the team has looked at this feature and it appears – to non knowledgeable eyes – that the dormer window may well have been replaced – go look for yourself and decide. Now how might it be that a building which is in a conservation area, which is being sold to SDC’s company Oportunitas Ltd  – be able to flout planning rules? Might different rules apply to you and us at Shepwayvox if we were to flout the planning regs in such a manner? Could it be that as Leo Griggs is a parish cllr a blind eye might have been turned?  Who knows, dear reader, we’ll leave you to decide that.

The Shepway Vox Team

Journalism for the People NOT the Powerful