Town planning/compulsory purchase any experts?

[miggy]

Bloody bloody bloody hell, sorry but extremely riled. I own a vets practice in a small rural town. The town is presently undergoing "redevelopement" between now and 2010, by the council with backing from "strategic partners" ie building companies etc. My practice is in a little block with a large office unit and a doctors Surgery. Last night one of the Doctors came in, very upset, he had heard (from a patient!) that the latest draft plans showed all our buildings being knocked down to create a 6 storey block of flats !
Went to the council today and its true, scheduled for 2008 onwards.(really nice of them to tell us eh!) Its only a draft plan at the moment but the developement thing is underway with some homes at the other end of town already undergoing compulsory purchase, so not pipe dreams.
How can it be legal to compulsory purchase something to sell land to a developer for a profit, its like the spanish land grab for gods sake! Could understand if it was for road widening etc but just to build something else?
Not enough doctors in the town anyway and their surgery has just spent a fortune being done up. We would never get planning to open anywhere else near the town centre, plus inside we are architect designed for the purpose etc. The cost of the building would in no way reflect the value of the business I have spent 15yrs building up. I wouldnt be able to afford to start again and frankly dont have the energy now.
Am going to see doctors tomorrow and talk about starting action group etc, just thought that could have a rant here (always helps!) but that someone might have some ideas?

just expressing sympathy miggy

I believe that there are compulsory purchase legal professionals you can engage

thanks Zippititippitoes (blimey thats hard to type!)
its just the injustice of the thing really.
well that and not telling us,only having a month for representations,no public meetings............

I can't believe that they can get away with this!
Would it help if yours & the Drs patients wrote to the local paper,started petitions ect?

I hope you can beat them
Good luck.

eek - I'm no good on the compulsory purchase end of your enquiry (not something that a lot of councils have done very much of, but I believe councils are getting more wide ranging powers for compulsory purchase).

I'm a council planner. At this stage all I could do is suggest that you object to the plan. You need to focus on why your building's demolition isn't crucial to the wider scheme - ie could it be incorporated in that wider scheme and not look (or it's use be) out of place. I'm guessing that the compulsory purchase is based on the improvement to the appearance and mix of uses of the area - improvements that couldn't otherwise be made due to lots of (unwilling - sorry) landowners.

It's really important that you object to the plan and contest the compulsory purchase. The council may well want to work with you to try and resolve your objection. So make sure you object to every single stage but perhaps start to think about any compromises you can make from your original position.

I suspect you also want to consider taking advice from a planning consultant who is experienced in both planning and compulsory purchase orders.

Best of luck.

Miggy, if you want to cat me I can give you some advice on this one as I work in the world of CPO orders (not for a council but for a law firm who deals with them for councils). Not saying what I know will help you but it might give you some ideas of who to contact etc.