West Norfolk Council chiefs have reached a preliminary agreement to buy the former grain silo site on Lynn’s South Quay, it has emerged.
A proposal to allow senior officers to finalise terms for acquiring the site was approved by the authority’s ruling cabinet on Tuesday evening.
Although the decision was made during private session, papers detailing discussions held last week by the council’s regeneration, environment and communty panel, which also backed the scheme, have been published.
The document reveals: “The borough council had been interested in acquiring this site for a number of years to contribute to the council’s regeneration ambitions for King’s Lynn.
“Discussions had been held with the current owners of the site, and preliminary terms for acquiring the site had been negotiated.”
Most recently, the site has been earmarked for a retirement flats development put forward by McCarthy and Stone.
But that plan was thrown out by the borough council’s planning committee last December in a dispute between the parties over the amount of money the company was prepared to commit towards affordable housing in the area.