Shelling out nearly £2m in Hamilton link road bid

Jul 2 2009 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

OIL giants Shell are to be paid almost £2 MILLION for little more than half an acre of land required for a Hamilton road scheme.

The land in Wellhall Road is the site of a Shell petrol station.

It is required by South Lanarkshire Council for the £3.5m Peacock Cross link road.

However, the authority will have to part with £1.1m to acquire the site and £½m to compensate the mega-rich multi-national for the loss of the business.

In addition, the council will have to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax of almost £52,000, the seller’s fees for legal work, plus surveyors’ costs and also VAT.

Council enterprise director Iain Urquhart said the property had been independently valued by consultants Graham and Sibbald.

They advised that the negotiated purchase price was considered “fair in the context of the location and current market conditions”.

Moves had been made by the council to acquire, by compulsory purchase order, the Shell site and others which are required for the road scheme.

Shell had objected and a public inquiry into that and other objections took place between May 12 and May 14.

Mr Urquhart said Shell had agreed to withdraw their objection once the council agreed to the voluntary acquisition.

Work on the road scheme was due to start this year. However, the council now say that the timescale depends on the results of the public inquiry, expected by the end of the year.

It was in January, 2007, that the council approved the road scheme which involves the construction of a 125-yard link road between Wellhall Road and Burnbank Road.

The Shell garage and other Wellhall Road properties will require to be demolished if the scheme is to go ahead.

Council chiefs say the road is necessary to ease congestion at Peacock Cross, a notorious bottleneck. Traffic queues there are expected to get worse once work starts on the 4000 houses earmarked for greenbelt land on the outskirts of Hamilton. Junction improvements and a park-and-ride for Hamilton West Station are also planned.

Council leader Eddie McAvoy said the £2m cost was “normal business” and the price that had to be paid to bring the road scheme to fruition

ACQUIRED: council chiefs have had to fork out almost £2m to acquire the Wellhall Road garage.