Ashby de la Zouch Town Council is to look at the possibility of issuing a Compulsory Purchase Order to complete a £620,000 deal to buy the Bath Grounds - after fears the area could be 'lost' to the town.

An Extraordinary General Meeting was held at Legion House in South Street last night with a large attendance by members of the public who expressed frustration - along with councillors - that contracts remained unsigned by the the Royal Hotel owner, Simon Dawson, that would allow the Bath Grounds purchase to finally go ahead.

Last January, the Full Council agreed to complete a 'once-in-a-lifetime' deal to buy the Bath Grounds.

A recommendation was passed to put a £620,000 purchase in place to secure the historical open space 'for the people of the town'.

The transaction should have meant the Bath Grounds was effectively separate from the revised planning application for the development of the Royal.

Also, the money paid was to be used by Oakland Hotels Ltd - to renovate the Royal.

Since then, no progress has been made with Mr Dawson who is expected to make a revised planning application for town houses on the site.

But the council also agreed to take legal advice to see if that affected the contract which was agreed between the two parties in 2019.

In the meantime, councillors have backed suggestions that looking at a CPO should be the next move.

Cllr John Deakin said the council had been using the carrot, and 'now it was time to use the stick' instead.

But it was made clear that the risk of losing the site still remained and that action needed to be taken now.

It was also suggested that Mr Dawson was 'running rings' around the council by refusing to sign the papers.

The Bath Grounds with the Royal Hotel in the background. All photos: Ashby Nub News

The meeting was held after town clerk, Jack Fargher, prepared a report to be put to councillors.

Cllr Dan Harrison told the committee: "We can't just carry on sitting here, with no answers, feeling despondent.

"When are we going to draw something from this? It's prevarication after prevarication.

"The town clerk has played a perfect role, but that has not been reciprocated.

"We're left in a terrible situation and dilemma. What actually happens?

"If it ever does happen. It's an amenity to the public which is well used.

"To leave it in the air is awful, it's frightening, we could lose it.

"If we lost that park, it would really alter the balance of the town.

"We've already lost 102 parking spaces there, we're struggling with that.

"There's a lot of pressure on this town and we're losing a lot of things.

"So I think we ought to be brave, and I would recommend we instruct the clerk to talk to our legal advisors about who they know would be prominent in the field of CPO, who specialise on this sort of work.

"We need a good solid steer, otherwise this could be an annual event.

"We have to do something, it's the only thing that is reasonable.

"It's nothing dramatic, we're asking the lawyers to investigate.

"We're trying to fight a battle and we don't know what the odds are, other than the person we're dealing with.

"If we get legal advice, then knowledge is power.

"At the moment, this fellow is being allowed to frustrate us, we have the £620,000, our commitment is solid, money on the table.

"We're up front. Can we go? But he won't.

"We need to get the Bath Grounds sorted so that we can dictate the recreation for this town.

"It's a diamond in this old town.

"But the longer it's allowed to go on, the more we'll be in jeopardy.

"He's sat on those contracts for three years and keeps coming up with reasons for not completing.

"There's no goodwill coming to the table. I hope we can unite here as a team."

Cllr Barbara Kneale said she was disappointed that no further progress had been made since the optimism of the council's January meeting which put the money in place.

She added: "We seem to be going backwards with more obstacles in our way.

"I've always had concerns about the developer and whether Mr Dawson intends to sell the Bath Grounds to the town council.

"My view is that we should never have signed a contract linking the Bath Grounds purchase to satisfactory planning permission.

"This is merely a conduit to move the goalposts.

"We're now three years down the line, in January, the council said we would be uncoupling the planning permission from our contract, but we're still discussing it.

"Is Mr Dawson going to sell us the Bath Grounds? I have lost confidence in this and I now feel actions speak louder than words.

"Surely we're now at a point where we need a Plan B. I believe that a CPO should be looked at.

"I've been advised that it would be difficult, but not impossible.

"But then, haven't the last three years been difficult?

"Nobody in this room wants to see the Bath Grounds lost to this town.

"We have to exhaust all our avenues and I believe we are at that point.

"I'm not sure what more we can do, other than going back to the developer and saying: 'Here's your money, sign the contract'."

Cllr David Bigby said he had had a meeting with Mr Dawson recently.

He said: "I met with him on June 16, and he assured me that he had already, that day, instructed his solicitor to complete the sale.

"I understand he may have given similar assurances to the town council, so I'm really concerned and we need to look at an alternative way forward.

"I have asked the District Council about the CPO and got some pretty negative results in that we don't have sufficient grounds to do so."

Cllr Mary Tuckey added: "I feel he's using us, knowing how much we want the Bath Grounds.

"I'd love to see the Royal Hotel opened again, but at the moment, it's a pipe dream.

"Our priority has to be the purchase of the Bath Grounds, if we have to go down the CPO route, so be it, we've given him long enough to sign this contract."

Concerns were also raised that the future state of the building was also an issue despite the fact that its condition had 'stabilised' in recent months.