The sale of a former Isle of Wight school site to a charity will now go ahead, with development plans including a maritime museum and climate change hub.
County Hall’s deputy leader Councillor Ian Stephens has approved the detailed terms of sale attached to the sale of the former Yarmouth CE Primary School site on Mill Lane, Yarmouth, to The Yarmouth Community Foundation.
Department for Education consent
Department for Education consent is needed to dispose of the site which the decision report said will be with the council ‘shortly’.
The Isle of Wight council’s cabinet originally approved the site’s sale to the charity in March 2024.
Approval last year was subject to the sale’s detailed terms being agreed and then authorised by the deputy leader.
A council decision report said the terms are confidential under the Local Government Act 1972,
“It relates to the financial and business affairs of any particular person which can be harmed if the public are made aware of a bidder’s current financial position and future business plans.”
The document said,
“In 2020 the decision was made to relocate Yarmouth CE Primary School to the former All Saints Primary School site in Freshwater following a new modern, purpose-built school being built there, now known as Freshwater and Yarmouth CE Primary School.
“Yarmouth Primary School relocated to this new site in December 2022 rendering the former Yarmouth Primary School site surplus to educational requirements and therefore available for disposal.”
The plans
The Yarmouth Community Foundation’s development plans include a ‘target number’ of eight affordable or social housing units for local people, providing ‘high-quality community use’ with an ‘offer to provide land for the Scouts and Guides’, a shipwreck centre and maritime museum and a hub for climate change initiatives.
Its proposal also comprises a ‘wide-ranging and high-quality education offer’ with ‘educational links to local schools’ and ‘national and international universities’.
Crown Estate covenants on the former school playing field must be varied to enable other uses.
County Hall’s paper said terms have been agreed with the Crown Estate, with lawyers ‘currently drafting a deed of variation to formalise this’.
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
