South Holland District Council narrowly missed out on a Spalding town centre yard, when it sold at auction on Tuesday for £875,000.
The 1.5 acre site in St Thomas’s Road is currently used by trade counters Plumb Center and Parts Center, and building supplies firm Gibbs and Dandy.
The plot adjoins Victoria Street car park, which is owned by the district council. The value and importance of the two sites together would have been huge.
The rental income would have also provided a good return on investment.
The council was bidding online during the auction at Claridge’s in London and went up to £840,000 – the amount put on the property by the district valuer.
Disappointed council leader Gary Porter is now keen to know who won the lot.
He said: “There are two things about that site.
“We would have had a strategic landholding which would have given us a proper seat at the table of any future town centre development talks.
“It would also have given us return on our investment of about £80,000 a year.”
Approval to allocate £1million for use in the auction was made hurriedly last week after it emerged that the property was in the auction.
