Woodhamites have been known to ask if Essex County Council was made in the likeness of its erstwhile ‘chairman’, Lord Hanningfield or vice versa. 

I won’t be so uncharitable as to comment – I’ll merely point out to those who are unfamiliar with local history that he was jailed for fiddling his parliamentary expenses to the tune of either £13,379 or £28,000 depending on which account you believe. A BBC report dated 19 March 2013 also claims that: “Staff who worked for the disgraced peer Lord Hanningfield spent about £70,000 on Essex County Council credit cards in his last two-and-half years there.” 

All this apart, what was clear to me when I first came to South Woodham was that Essex Country Council had precious little regard for healthcare when the town was planned – its only contribution was to have a ‘brilliant idea’ … a health centre (to include GPs) … which was never built. Imagine the fuss there, would be if a new town was constructed in this day and age with zero provision for healthcare! It was only considerably later (and after the great deal of public pressure) that the town centre Health Clinic, was erected and, if my memory serves me correctly, the building costs were borne by the NHS. Other than that, healthcare in SWF was ‘the Cinderella service’ that grew up in an unstructured way in the wake of the development. 

Essex County Council did, however, come up with the concept of a ‘medical centre’ for the town – a piece of land adjacent to the ASDA car-park that is now bordered by the Fire Station, The Ambulance Station and what was the Police Station. Accordingly, when clinicians wanted to move from unsuitable accommodation to purpose built practices we were told that the Council had come up with a ‘vision’ for the town rather late in the day and that the practices were henceforth to be situated in the town centre. When I applied I was told, like everybody else, that that there was no possibility of freehold premises in the town centre so we would have to be leaseholders. Most such properties at that time came with a ‘peppercorn rent’ – but the ground rents for the properties in the town centre were set at a high level in keeping with Essex Country Council’s long-held philosophy that it should take as much out of South Woodham as possible and put very little back. Given that there was seemingly no alternative I reluctantly agreed to the leasehold suggestion. 

Residences for the elderly sprung up around the ‘hub’ – and the occupants were left high and dry when all primary healthcare facilities in the town centre were closed. 

As I mentioned in an earlier article, the negotiations about new premises took place at the Council Office in South Woodham where I dealt with a very helpful chap. He asked if I had decided on a builder and when I said I hadn’t, he recommended one. This builder, in turn, said he would find somebody to draw up the plans … and when they came back I spotted that they had been drawn up by the nice man from the Council Offices. 

The leaseholders in the town centre sites (and I was one of many) were given the clear impression that, when the leases were sold off, we would get first option. Accordingly, when Essex County Council decided to sell off the leases the local doctors, dentists and pharmacist directly involved were invited to a meeting with the ASDA Estates Manager, Paul Fisher, who, for some reason, always put me in mind of one of Lewis Carrol’s ‘slithy toves’. We were asked if we would be interested in purchasing the leases and we all said that we would. This made sense because it would put an end to the continual drain on healthcare resources in the town. I should make it clear that, to the best of my memory, this happened shortly before ASDA was taken over by Walmart. 

There were no further discussions whatsoever – and, as far as I can recall, no mention of any figures. The next event of note was that we saw a headline in a local newspaper saying that the ground leases had all been sold off to a concern called SW Investments – a London-based ‘private family’ property company (with NO prior connection to South Woodham NO interest in the town.) 

So who was to blame. Both key players had previously been the subject of criticism but and to get an update on the current situation I spoke to one of the owners of this ‘family business’ after the event and he told me “basically what happened” – which was that, in order for ASDA to buy the lease for the land its store occupied, it had to offer to buy up everybody else’s leases too. The SW Investments man said: “From our point of view ASDA wanted to buy their store. They agreed in the end to buy it, or the Council would not sell them their store on their own, it was either take everything or nothing. They agreed to buy everything. We had also tendered to buy everything as well as the industrial estates as well. It was a much, much bigger portfolio which in the end they split into two. ASDA bought one part and the Royal Bank of Scotland bought the other part on behalf of the residents of most of the industrial estate and we got in touch with ASDA and ASDA said to us if you want to make us a bid to buy everything you can, but be aware that you will probably bidding against the tenants. We came in with obviously a stonking bid. They didn’t come round and argue with us they said fine, OK, if you’ll do it, you can have it, and we obviously did in like a day.” 

I pointed out that the ASDA people had told us that that it was nothing to do with them – that the deal was with Essex County Council – to which he replied: “Well, No. That isn’t realistically true. What it was was ASDA had agreed to buy everything and simultaneously with them buying everything we did actually take a transfer in the end direct from the Council. But realistically it was all part of one parcel. In other words they had committed themselves to buying everything and we simultaneously with their completion bought everything excluding their supermarket, and the contract came direct effectively the transfer came direct from the Council, but realistically it was really through ASDA.” (This transaction took place in the ASDA offices in Leeds.) 

A short podcast gives further details. 

The SW Investments man told me: “In a nutshell really, what the Council were only interested in is selling their portfolio, and raising money on the back of that. They advertised it in the biggest property magazines in the country, i.e. The Estates Gazette, they went to best bids. They were asking for offers in excess of £12 million, and I think we bid £15 million for the portfolio anyway, as a straightforward investment deal – nothing to do with the town.” 

He commented on the ‘ethics’ of “the deal” saying: “It’s ridiculous the way the deal was handled all the way round, to be honest with you. I never agree with Councils never offering the lessees the opportunity to buy it themselves anyway, and the majority of Councils do offer to lessees to buy as it so happens but this Council for some reason couldn’t be bothered to deal with it.” 

I should point out with respect to the above conversation that I am merely reporting what I was told and can’t vouch for the validity except inasmuch as it appears to fit the known facts. But, if the explanation I was given is accurate, this appears to represent another example of corporate greed trammelling the wants and needs of the small businesses and healthcare facilities in SWF … with repercussions that disadvantaged the residents. It wasn’t the first example … and it won’t be the last. 

SWF businessman, Dino Khan, was quoted as follows: “The decision by Essex County Council to sell the freehold of the town centre was welcomed by the consortium in the town centre as an opportunity for the businesses to own their own premises. The decision now by the Asda (Wall-Mart) management to pull out of this agreement will not help the town centre regeneration.” (That’s putting it mildly.) 

Needless to say SW Investments wanted to make a tidy profit. I was told: “The other surgery, Clements House Surgery, we have served a big notice on that; they are paying £1900 a year, we have implemented the 97 review, we have served notice I think at £8,000 or £9,000.” 

The outcome is that £hundreds of thousands have been lost to the South Woodham healthcare budget over the years because of the actions of the key players in this debacle … not to mention the adverse effect this has had on the other town centre businesses. There has never been any apology to the town – and it goes without saying that there has never been any attempt to recompense the town for the considerable sums that have been lost to patient services. 

Dr John Cormack