An affordable housing development could be a step closer on the Isle of Wight – on the site of a former primary school.
It comes as the Isle of Wight council agreed to dispose of land at Berry Hill in Lake, which was the former home of the Island Learning Centre and Broadlea Primary School.
Building destroyed by fire
In 2015, the building was destroyed by fire and was thought at the time to be the subject of a suspected arson attack.
The authority was awarded £619,500 in 2021, by the government to carry out work on the 3.7-acre site to make it suitable for housing.
A condition of the funding was it must be released for housing by the end of March 2024.
IWC approached housing providers
The council marketed the site last year, but did not receive any suitable proposals so it approached registered housing providers on the Island to see if any would be willing to build affordable housing.
Since the fire, the building was demolished. The site, consisting of grass and hard standings, has been empty ever since.
Approval to dispose to ‘bidder 3’
A bid was received and in a delegated decision published yesterday (Thursday), the council leader, Lora Peacey-Wilcox, has approved to dispose of the site to ‘Bidder 3’.
The bidder is not named in the council report but is said to have a track record of building and managing affordable homes on the Island.
Confident of high quality housing
The council said it was confident the housing would be high quality and Bidder 3 was ideally placed to manage the properties effectively as they have an office on the Island.
It says the bidder’s vision for the site is ‘to create a sustainable, diverse and futureproofed housing scheme that responds to the environmental, social and economic challenges facing new schemes on the Island.’
Could take 30-45 dwellings
There is no current planning permission for the site but it is thought it would be able to hold between 30 and 45 dwellings.
The funding from government could be used towards site preparation costs incurred by the developer.
The council says disposing of the site will save money as it will not have to pay for maintenance or upkeep costs in the future.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
