How to buy land from council?

[BlueInk1234]

Hello Mumsnet members, I’m having some trouble figuring out how to buy land from the council. There is a playground next to our house with a small area adjacent to it which is part of the playground but the only thing it contains is a (second) bench to sit on. It’s frequently used by various members of the public to smoke weed (at night) and is often quite polluted with rubbish (even though there’s a bin in the playground). It’s clearly not being used for proper purposes of a playground and I’d quite like to purchase the land to expand my small garden to allow my dog more space to run in. However, the city council website is very confusing and makes this not a very clear process. Previously they sent me paper work for planning permission which doesn’t seem like the right document to fill out to buy this land.

Does anyone have any advice on how I would get more information on the next steps? Thank you!!

Approach the Estates Team in the relevant Council to a) double check they they own the land and b) whether they are interested in selling it to you.

Surely you phone and ask them?

But the people using it for their nocturnal activities might not just move on somewhere else if you are successful, they might just start sitting on the swings, slide, roundabout, still smoking, and littering

It would usually have to go to tender / auction to be proven to get market rate, and it politically tricky. Some cheeky people tried to lease a bit of Wandsworth Park from the council to make their gardens bigger. It's public land so got strong opposition.

unlikely the council will sell to you. the land is being used by the public for recreation. you may not like the recreation, but you can't stop people sitting on a bench and smoking.