Somerset Council has completed the sale of its property at Aztec West, Bristol. The building is one of many commercial assets that the Council is disposing of as part of its property rationalisation programme established in response to the financial emergency. 600-650 Aztec West was a legacy investment included in the portfolio of commercial properties bought by Sedgemoor District Council at a time when the Government of the day encouraged them to operate commercially as a measure to counter funding pressures. Cllr Brian Smedley (Labour, Bridgwater South) had put a motion to council earlier this year calling for the disposal specifically of this investment due to its connections with UK-Israeli defence industry Ellbit Systems, of which Elbit UK was a subsidiary. Cllr Smedley said “The motion to get rid of Elbit was passed by council on St George’s day 2024 and for me that was a great result. I had opposed Sedgemoor’s original investment in Elbit and I continued to oppose Somerset’s. The motion gave county the option to act morally and actually evict this crowd but we knew they might also take the disposal route as they were already committed to getting rid of literally everything they own in one giant car boot sale. Eviction would have been better, but disposal is still a victory”
‘explore all ways of legally evicting Elbit UK or to otherwise dispose of the property
The motion which gave Somerset the choice between eviction or disposal was passed by a large majority, however within a day Somerset had caved in to Elbit(UK) claiming they were not the same as Elbit Systems (Israel). Palestine Action put out a counter statement saying “Elbit Systems UK is wholly owned by its Israeli parent company Elbit Systems Ltd, which, according to Israeli media, provides up to 80% of the Israel military’s land based military equipment and 85% of its military drones. This heinous company and its British operations are one and the same”.
A spokesperson for Somerset Council said “Somerset Council had agreed to explore other potential legal options available to it as the landlord of the building following significant public concern. It was concluded that sale was the only viable way forwards. Details of the sale remain commercially confidential at this stage.”
Cllr Ros Wyke (Lib Dem ,Mendip West) Lead Member for Economic Development, Planning and Assets, said: “We are committed to the sale of our commercial investment properties to achieve capital receipts which will help to bridge the budget gap for 2024/25 and 25/26.This approach is in response to the well documented financial emergency facing Somerset Council and the capitalisation direction approved by the former Government which encourages us to sell surplus property and assets, and use the receipts to fund essential services, like adults and children’s social care.We will continue to call on the new Government to take urgent action to fix the system of funding local government which is fundamentally broken.”
Easy Way Out
Seconder of the motion Cllr Shane Collins (Frome, Green) said “Well Somerset Council have taken the easy way out to avoid likely large court appeal fees and sell Aztec West, to whom we don’t know yet. The fact remains is this Elbit company is selling arms to the IDF to continue a ‘plausible genocide’ according to the ICJ. To the rest of us it is the destruction of Gaza and the people living there and a permanent stain on the State of Isreal.”