Parish council U-Turn on Cemetery Lodge sale

Councillors have pulled the plug on the controversial sale of Hadley Cemetery Lodge and chosen to keep the Telford property as a community asset.

A meeting was told that a bid made for the lodge, in Hadley Park Road, fell though partly because of a campaign against the sale by “saboteurs” but also that the council’s finances have improved.

Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council voted unanimously to take the building off the market after being told that it could have access to significant heritage grants.

Councillor Eileen Callear, chairing Tuesday’s meeting (December 2), said: “The position that we are in now is different to a couple of years ago.

“Thanks to the financial officer and the clerk we have a far better position to move forward.”

She added that selling it had been the “right decision” at the time and was a decision supported by the council.

But she added that it has been made a “very difficult process by certain individuals with their own interests at heart”.

Councillor Callear said that a bid for the property had fallen through after a “sustained effort to sabotage the sale of the Lodge”.

The council had faced withering criticism after a decision was made in early 2024 to sell the three-bed period lodge.

Angry residents turned up at meetings, a petition gathered names and the council held a parish poll on the issue after the decision was made behind closed doors.

At the time the council said it did not make the decision in public because of a link between the use of the lodge and a contract of employment.

The council said the sale could have led to hundreds of thousands of pounds being invested in improvements across the parish.

The meeting was told that there is now the prospect of a “really exciting project” involving both the chapel in the cemetery grounds and the lodge.

The council has taken advice which says that the council could access more grant funding if the buildings on the site are considered together.

Councillor John Snell (Hadley & Leegomery Residents Association, Apley Castle ward) said that £8,500 spent on a parish poll and £3,500 on extra auditing costs incurred after an anonymous challenge to the council’s finances had been “blown away”. He also alleged “abusive things” had been said during the debate.

“This is three times our grant budget for community groups,” he said.

Councillors considered two options for the future of the lodge: one to keep it as a parish property and another to rent it out.

Councillor Jasmine Bennett (Hadley Castle ward) said she was against renting it out because of the risks of being a landlord.

Councillor Thomas King (HLRA, Apley Castle ward) wondered whether it would be better to rent it out to students at Princess Royal Hospital.

But Councillor Callear responded by saying that it would be a “kettle of worms” for the council to turn it into a house in multiple occupation.

Councillors Bennett and David Brown (Independent, Horton ward) proposed and seconded going for ‘option B’ which is to keep Hadley Cemetery Lodge as a parish office. The council unanimously supported the move.