Research by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism and HuffPost UK shows cash-strapped Cheshire councils have sold off public assets totalling more than £111m. 

Freedom of Information responses revealed that between 2015-2018 local authorities across England sold capital assets totalling £9.1bn.

Across Cheshire, assets sold include farms, a children’s centre, a family centre, libraries, schools, old people’s homes and a park keeper’s lodge.

Cheshire West and Chester Council appears to have sold just about anything that wasn’t nailed down with 216 assets sold between 2013 and 2018 worth almost £70m – £69,296,511.

The most valuable asset was land remaining at The Former Brook Farm Residential School, Tarporley , which sold for £7,266,554 in 2013.

Another big value sale was of The Printworks, Chester West Employment Park, where Big Yellow Self Storage is now based. The freehold sold for £4,800,000.

Land at Backford Hall, previously occupied by Cheshire County Council, was sold for luxury housing in 2014 for a total of  £3,199,005.

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In Winsford , The Laurels in Walnut Drive went for £3m in 2013.

While the Whetstone Hey Home in Great Sutton , Ellesmere Port , made another £3m for Cheshire West as did Wealstone Residential Home in Upton , Chester.

There has been a mass sale of council-owned farms including Dutton County Farms Estate, Dutton, Northwich , which sold for £1,290,000 in 2018.

Council offices have also been sold including Richard House, Lower Bridge Street, Chester, which went for £635,000.

Flashback: Campaigner Ross Jones with members of the Saughall community outside the former Ridings School in the village where people had concerns about plans for housing.

A controversial sell-off involved The Ridings Community Infants School, Rake Way, Saughall , which went for £519,130 to make way for private housing despite a campaign to retain the site as a community facility.

The former Frodsham Library sold for £340,000. And the site once occupied by Hoole Library went for £250,000 to make way for St Martins Academy Free School.

Asset disposal linked to Westminster Community Primary School in Ellesmere Port made £270,000 towards council coffers.

A particularly contentious sale was that of Alexandra Park Lodge for £249,000, the former park keeper’s lodge, which is now a private residence. Leading campaigners remain determined the lodge should be reunited with the rest of the park for use as a community facility.

An aerial shot of the BASE Motopark track which was forced to close

Also hitting the headlines was the forced closure of an Ellesmere Port scramble track aimed at making sure young motorbike riders stay off the streets when the land was sold to a neighbouring business for £255,000.

Meanwhile, Cheshire East Council sold 49 spaces for £11,460,664, between 2016 and 2018. Examples included Pyms Lane Depot in Crewe for £4m, Redsands Children's Centre in Nantwich for £3,150,000, Newall Avenue Depot and playing fields in Sandbach for £800,000 and The Ethel Elks Family Centre in Crewe for £355,000.

Warrington Council sold 27 spaces for £2,701,233, between 2014 and 2018. Halton Council sold 35 spaces for £28,100,641, also between 2014 and 2018.

For more details, visit the searchable website .