A COUNCILLOR dubbed the demise of a valuable building ‘a tragedy waiting to happen’ and has called for scrutiny into how the council's property is managed. 

Cheshire West and Chester (CWAC) and Northwich town councillor for Witton ward, Sam Naylor, said the fire which gutted Leftwich Green Community Care Centre on Wednesday, November 27 was ‘a great shame’.  

While Sam, who is chairman of CWAC’s Places Overview and Scrutiny Committee, says it’s 'difficult to know' where the blame lies, he suggested police and council budgets, which are ‘stretched to breaking point’ might well a significant factor.

He added without the staff to property look after its ‘vast property portfolio', these valuable assets 'become liabilities'.

This demands a new approach to how they’re managed, he said, whether that be putting them to good use in a timely way, or selling them while they're still in good condition. 

It took seven fire engines to extinguish the blaze at the Leftwich care home, which police said caused 'extensive damage'It took seven fire engines to extinguish the blaze at the Leftwich care home, which police said caused 'extensive damage' (Image: Andy Deakin) Sam said: “This was a tragedy waiting to happen and years in the making. It’s been closed since 2018, so we’re six years down the line.

“CWAC has a vast portfolio of property, but due to competing demands on councils, it's sad, but you do get this kind of thing.

“Managing it all is really difficult, but we need to get a firm grip on it.

“We need to get rid of property which is no longer in use.

“The demise of Leftwich Green started with small scale break-ins and vandalism, but escalated to a lot of the infrastructure inside being damaged or stolen, including pipes and electrical equipment.

“It’s difficult to know where to apportion blame in these circumstances. Do you blame the council? Do you blame the police for not responding to criminal damage reports? Or is it local people not reporting incidents to the police?

“It’s a mixture really, but in my view, it goes back to how the public sector is being run.

“Both the council and the police’s budgets are stretched to breaking point.

“We’ve got this huge property portfolio, but we haven’t got the staff to manage it properly.

“I’ve already put in a request to track how we’ve come to this situation with Leftwich Green.

“I can’t do anything about the decision to close it down. That was taken in good faith some time ago.

“But I want to find out why we haven’t disposed of it earlier. If we knew we were going to put it on the market, why did we board it up?

“Surely it would have made sense to dispose of it while it was a going concern. It’s only been put up for sale fairly recently.

“It’s a great pity as it was a perfectly functioning building with equipment inside."

The most important thing of all, Sam says, is make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again.

He added: “The council has other property which needs to be either gotten rid of, or put back into use.

“Cllr Rachel Waterman, of Leftwich Ward, and our MP, Andrew Copper, both share my concerns about how we’ve found ourselves in this situation.

“It’s of the utmost importance we look at our portfolio and see if we can avoid a repetition of what happened to Leftwich Green in the future.”