OnTheWight reader Diana Kimpton has been in touch suggesting the wording used in papers for tonight’s emergency Executive meeting are misleading.
She argues the Isle of Wight council (IWC) are not – as stated in council papers – required by law to transfer the freehold to Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), but instead, could enter a leasehold arrangement, retaining ownership of the land and property.
The council paper reads,
“The council currently holds the property on a freehold basis for the purposes of education. The provisions of the Academies Act 2010 require that it must transfer, on direction of the Secretary of State, any premises held for these purposes to an academy or similar organisation and that organisation shall maintain the premises for the same purpose.”
However, our reader points out that Schedule 1 of the Academies Act 2010 states,
“references in this Schedule to a transfer of land are to the transfer of a freehold or leasehold [our emphasis] interest in the land or to the grant of a lease in respect of the land; and references to a transfer back of land are to the transfer of a freehold or leasehold interest in the land or to the surrender of a lease in respect of the land.”
Diana told OnTheWight,
“I’m not a lawyer, but I’m sure that means that a transfer of the freehold or a grant of a lease are both equally acceptable. If it didn’t, there would have to be an exception to that clause.
“So, I believe that contrary to what it says in the report, the Act does not require the Council to transfer the freehold.
No response from Executive members
OnTheWight wrote on Tuesday to Cllrs Richard Priest and Jon Gilbey asking,
We’ve been reliably informed that the Isle of Wight council doesn’t need to give away the Freehold of Cowes Enterprise College (CEC) in the deal with Ormiston Academies Trust.
- Were you aware of this?
- Were you aware that normal procedure is to lease the building for 125 years to the Academy taking over the school?
- Had this been considered by you and the IWC officers?
- What were the reasons that it was decided not to lease the building but to give the freehold away instead?
- Who made that decision?
Given then closeness of the meeting, it seems that a rapid response to these is important.
At time of publishing both had failed to reply.
Implement a covenant
Diana finishes by saying,
“There seems no reason why the Council can’t grant a lease instead of transferring freehold. If Ormiston has no plans to sell land, this should be totally acceptable.
“Even if the Council insists on transferring freehold, they should be able to put a covenant on the land preventing it being used for anything other than educational purposes. Again, that should be acceptable to Ormiston unless they have plans we don’t know about.”
The meeting at County Hall starts at 5pm and members of the public are welcome to attend.
For full details see the paper embedded below. Click on the full screen icon to see a larger version.
