Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, which owns some of the earmarked land at Cornhill, is to seek a collaboration agreement with the private sector organisation that owns most of the site.

At Tuesday’s (October 26th, 2010) meeting of the authority’s cabinet, council officials were given the go ahead to talk to the major landowner in a bid to establish the feasibility of assembling all the required land, some of which belongs to third parties.

Cabinet also agreed to spend £30,000 on property and legal advisors who would safeguard the council’s interests and lead negotiations with the other landowners.

The Cornhill Regeneration Area, off Cheadle Road, Junction Road and Barnfields Industrial Estate, was defined by the council and project partner Staffordshire County Council back in 2006 when proposals were drawn for a phased tourism, leisure and employment scheme that would use public money to create the right conditions for private investors.

For example, it was intended that the two councils would secure external funding for an access road that would open up the site. However, it was not possible to secure funding commitments of the required scale.

And with the prospects for future public funding looking unfavourable, cabinet decided earlier this year that any scheme would need to be commercially led.

The county council was then asked to produce a commercial viability assessment which concluded that it would be feasible to attract private investment in a mixed-use development that might include offices, housing and shops plus leisure facilities such as a budget hotel, drive-through restaurant and canal-side marina.

But it would first be necessary to assemble the land needed for the link road through the site, and to secure commercial investment in its development. The road would not only open up the site but would also link the A53 Newcastle Road and A520 Cheadle Road, easing traffic congestion in and around Junction Road and into the town centre.

Having concluded that “a commercially viable project could be achievable”, the county council’s study recommended that the district council should enter into a “collaboration agreement” with the largest landowner – which cannot be named for commercial reasons.

The agreement would state the aims, needs and timescales of the collaboration, paving the way for the two parties to prepare a masterplan for the area.

Speaking after the cabinet meeting, Cllr Andrew Hart, portfolio holder for regeneration, described the prospect of collaboration with the major landowner as “great news for Leek and the Staffordshire Moorlands”.

“Although current economic conditions have made it impossible for us to secure significant external funding from organisations such as Advantage West Midlands, the regional development agency, we’ve still found a way to move forward with these exciting plans.

“If we can assemble the necessary land and then secure private sector investment, we could be looking at hundreds of new jobs for our local economy”, he stressed.

However, he warned that there were numerous stumbling blocks still to be overcome. These included the fact that some of the landowners had still to be persuaded of the benefits of the scheme while some of the proposed uses might not be acceptable in planning terms.

In addition, it was possible that up to £9m may need to be spent on acquiring all the necessary land, building the link road and proposed canal basin, and treating land potentially contaminated by former industrial uses.