TWO Wellington properties are set to be sold off as Somerset Council battles to avoid going bankrupt.

The council, which faced a £100 million budget shortfall, expected in February to issue a ‘section 114’ notice which effectively declares a state of bankruptcy.

But it managed to agree a budget after announcing 1,200 redundancies and £35 million of cuts to services, while the Government gave it a dispensation to meet day to day bills by selling off capital assets.

Now, a list of some of the assets to be sold has been published, which includes 55 North Street, the temporary home for Wellington Library while the Fore Street premises are being refurbished.

Council executive director Jason Vaughan said the refurbishment of the main library building was due to be finished later this summer.

Following relocation of the library back to its original home, the North Street premises would become vacant.

The site also had a temporary unit at the rear which was in poor condition.

Mr Vaughan said it had been declared surplus to requirements and Wellington Town Council had already been made aware it would be put on the market, possibly via auction as it could be of interest to a small developer.

He said the authority’s housing development team had confirmed there was no projected or strategic need to retain the building.

The other Wellington property earmarked for disposal was Unit 4, on the Blackdown Business Park, which was a tenanted site in need of redevelopment.

Mr Vaughan said there was good demand for freehold commercial units in the area with two adjoining units in the business park recently being sold.

He said the unit would be sold with the tenant in-situ via auction

Another property proposed to be sold on the open market was 11 South Street, Wiveliscombe, the empty caretakers house on the Kingsmead School campus, where the lease had been surrendered back to the authority.

The council’s children’s services was approached but discounted using it due to the volume of remodelling work and financial investment required to enable occupation.

Mr Vaughan said office accommodation rationalisation and the relocation of services in West Somerset and Yeovil meant C Block in the council’s County Hall, Taunton, headquarters could also be sold.

Marketing had started and it should be of interest to developers potentially seeking to use it for residential housing.

Mr Vaughan said the council was particularly looking for interest which would secure key worker accommodation.

Somerset councillors will meet on Wednesday (July 24) to consider the proposed sell-offs before its executive takes a final decision.

Mr Vaughan said the council was still at risk of going bankrupt, which would mean ceding local decision-making on such asset disposals.

It ran the risk of not achieving the council’s strategic and asset management objectives, so stepping up the disposal programme now would mitigate such risk.

Mr Vaughan said the funding gap was currently £80 million this year and predicted to rise to £100 million next year.

All the proposed sell-off sites were surplus to requirements.