a private individual had proffeted from council coffers !!
Well, a developer bought the property in 2005 for 138K, did it up, and sold it four years later. That's what developers do. Not sure what he sold it for - does anyone know? The asking price was 420K, subsequently reduced to 385K. So let's guess 370K, i.e. about 230K more than he paid for it. Now, he will have spent a lot of money of his own doing up what appeared to be a very dilapidated property. Obviously we can have no idea how much he spent, but 150K would not surprise me. So yes, he probably made a profit, but he also put at risk 138K of his own money, plus what he spent on the refurbishment works. Is that unreasonable?
If the Council had
not wanted to widen the pavement and install the pedestrian crossing, the developer would still have done up the house, landscaped the garden, and sold it on. If you want to show that he profitted from the Council's contribution, you would need to demonstrate that 17 Windows would have fetched less than 370K, had the council's contribution not been made - i.e. if the pavement widening and construction of the pedestrian crossing did not take place. I think that's pretty hard to prove.
