Earlier in the week, chair of the Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Geoff Lumley set out in detail why he felt that both he and Islanders had been misled over the freehold transfer of Cowes Enterprise College to Ormiston Academies Trust.
In response, Richard Priest, Executive member for children’s services, said:
“Improving educational standards is one of the council’s main priorities. The reason it is in dialogue with Ormiston Academies Trust about the management of Cowes Enterprise College is to improve the learning and development opportunities for young people in Cowes. Agreeing the terms for how the land and buildings will be occupied is a relatively small part of this dialogue and secondary to the impact which the council hopes will be made on educational achievement in Cowes.
“The paper considered by the Executive was informed by Land Transfer guidance issued by the Department for Education. The guidance sets out that if an academy trust wishes to have the freehold interest in the land currently used for the purposes of a school land on conversion, the Secretary of State will use their powers under Schedule 1 of the Academies Act (2010) to direct that the land is transferred to the trust on this basis. This advice is specifically set out in the legal implications section of the paper and the implications of not following this approach were set out in paragraphs about risk management and the evaluation of the council’s options.
“Ormiston Academies Trust was initially offered a lease for the site but it preferred the freehold because it was already entitled to acquire the freehold from Cowes Pathfinder Trust. Therefore on the basis of the government’s guidance document the council had no real choice in the approach it took to the transfer of the site which is why the recommendation was made to transfer the freehold interest to Ormiston.
“The terms of the freehold transfer include many of the restrictions about the future use of the site that would have been included in a leasehold transfer. The land can only be used for education purposes and change of use or disposal would be subject to the approval of the council and the Secretary of State for Education
“When introducing the paper, I drew members’ attention to these key facts and the Executive had a full and proper debate about the transfer which was voted through by a large majority.”
