§ Mr. Woodnuttasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he is satisfied that the imposition by the Crown Estates Commissioners of conditions of sale not required by the county council in respect of Arthur Cottage, Osborne, Isle of Wight, will not enable financial advantage to be taken of a planning approval for redevelopment in order to put off prospective purchasers who wish to acquire the property for renovation and preservation; and if he will make a statement:
(2) whether, in view of the forthcoming sale by auction of Arthur Cottage, Osborne, Isle of Wight, by the Crown Estate, in which the Commissioners have imposed conditions not required by the County Planning and Highways Authorities, he will instruct the Crown Estates to delete conditions of sale 16(c) and (f);
(3) if he will instruct the Crown Estates Commissioners to postpone the sale by auction of Arthur Cottage, Osborne, Isle of Wight, until the representations made by the hon. Member for the Isle of Wight, the Victorian Society, the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, the Isle of Wight Society, the Isle of Wight Tourist Board and others have been considered.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinI am informed that to meet the wishes of the Victorian Society and the Isle of Wight County Council the Crown Estate Commissioners had already altered the conditions of sale of this property to allow a purchaser to 67W retain and preserve the present building should he prefer this to redevelopment, and I am satisfied that in their revised form these conditions were advisable in the interests of good management of the Crown Estate.
However, in the light of the further representations which have been made by my hon. Friend and others the Commissioners have postponed the auction in order to give time for those representations to be considered.