By Louise Hill - BBC LDR
A former primary school will be sold for £400,000 to make way for a potential 16 houses.
Since closing in 2015, Weston Academy, in Totland, has sat empty and the Isle of Wight Council’s previous attempts to sell it have failed. Now with government funding available, and multiple bidders coming forward, the council’s cabinet agreed on Thursday to sell the site to its preferred option: Bath-based company, Strategic Green Land.
The company has offered £400,000 and, subject to planning permission, proposes turning the site into 16 houses, of which four would be either sold or rented at an ‘affordable’ rate. The bid has also proposed to retain the original stone schoolhouse and much of the Victorian school buildings.
The council received multiple bids ranging from eleven to sixteen houses, with prices offered from £1 (with overage paid at a later date) to £420,000. The authority said both the lowest and highest offers were ‘unattractive’ for various reasons as the highest bid did not propose to build affordable housing and overage leaves a lot of financial unknowns.
In a report sent to the council’s cabinet, officers revealed there were numerous issues which affected the development viability of the school and it did not have the money to deal with them. Since then the council has secured nearly £200,000 in the Brownfield Land Release Fund which the developer can use to make the site suitable for housing. There are tight timescales attached to the government funding, the council said, which would mean it could not re-market the site in time to attract another offer. Under the grant, the site must be released for housing by the end of the month (March).
Despite the school being empty for nearly ten years, the council has continued to pay to maintain and secure the site which costs around £3,600.
Press Release