Hoylake Library & Asset of Community Value status

In November 2019 Hoylake Vision nominated Hoylake Public Library as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). In January 2020 Wirral Council accepted Hoylake Library as an ACV and it is therefore included in the council’s list of ACVs for a period of 5 years.

What does this mean for the library?

1. Where an asset is included in the list of ACV’s, the owner is required to notify the Council in writing of their intention to dispose of the Asset. In the library’s case the council themselves must notify their intention to dispose.
2. This notification will trigger a period of delay during which the council may not dispose of the asset. During this period of delay, suitably constituted community groups and organisations which can demonstrate a local connection may submit an intention to bid.
3. If the Council receive an intention to bid, a six month delay period (starting from the date upon which the council notified their intention to dispose of the asset) is triggered during which no disposal may take place except to a qualifying community group by negotiation.
4. This six month period is intended to enable the community group or organisation to prepare to be able to submit a bid to the owner/council to purchase the asset.
5. Any subsequent sale takes place under normal market conditions. The group has no rights of purchase over other potential buyers. The owner/council is under no obligation to sell the asset to the community group or any other person. If the owner decides to sell to the community group, they may do so within the six month moratorium period. Even if the group came forward with funding at the sale price the owner does not have to sell to the group.
6. If after the six month delay period the community group has not bought the property, a further 12 month protection period is triggered (the total eighteen month period commencing on the day of notification of the owner/council intention to dispose of the asset). During this protection period the asset may be sold by the owner on the open market without the risk of any further delay period being triggered.

Photo by Phil Nash from Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 & GFDLViews, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons