Budget cuts ahead of abolition at the South West Regional Development Agency have forced it to drop plans to transfer the controversial 17ha Morlands site in Glastonbury to Mendip District Council and to put the whole site up for sale.
After months of negotiations with the Council, they have broken down as the Agency is no longer able to fund the site transfer or pursue a scheme to restore its listed buildings.
It is also withdrawing from negotiations with Urban Splash over these buildings and has told the Red Brick Building Group, which occupied one of the buildings to prevent demolition and was developing a scheme for renovation it will have to secure funding and planning consent by the end of the year.
"The RDA is in an extremely difficult position - our budget for this financial year has been cut by 20% and we are to be abolished by March 2012," said head of regeneration for Somerset and Devon, Carl Budden.
"By offering the Morlands site for sale as a single lot, we believe that opportunities for new build development will attract private sector investment to underpin the financial viability of the restoration of the listed buildings."
The Agency says there will be no funding for Morlands after March and it has lost £28m from this year's budget.
Council leader Harvey Siggs said local tax payers should not have to fork out for one of Somerset's biggest eyesores as the listed Bailey's buildings would cost millions to restore, although he plainly expected national tax payers to contribute.
"We ceased negotiating when it became clear that the RDA was unable to offer us any comfort that they could provide sufficient funding or an agreed and costed plan to deal with the listed buildings on the site," he said. "Throughout all the negotiations we continually stressed that we would not burden local taxpayers with further debt to dig the RDA out of a hole."
He said the Council has stressed the need for a viable and acceptable plan for refurbishing the listed buildings.
"Despite the optimism around putting it on the open market, I genuinely question whether there will be any interest in the site," he said.
"It has remained derelict since the early 1980s and until recently no-one has moved onto the site, and even after the RDA took over and despite some of their regeneration, there has still been little progress in terms of new businesses moving on. Despite that, I really do hope that the Morlands site will become a viable and popular business park not only for the benefit of the local area but for Mendip and the whole of the south west, and at no extra cost to local tax payers."
