Minutes:
The Executive Member for Education, the
Executive Member for Environment and Finance & Governance, the Director of
Education and Partnerships and the Director of Finance submitted a report for the
Executive’s consideration. The purpose of the report was to set out the case
for the proposal to dispose of the Council’s freehold interest in land at
Middlehaven, in order to facilitate the delivery of a new secondary free school
in Middlesbrough.
Middlesbrough Council had a statutory duty to
ensure there were sufficient school places. The proposed school planned to form
a central pillar of the Council’s approach to planning secondary school
provision as, without it, there would be insufficient places to meet the rising
demand.
To meet rising demand for places, the DfE had
proposed opening the school in temporary accommodation in the first instance,
allowing for due diligence, design, procurement and delivery of the new school
to take place by the academic year 2021/22.
It had been identified that further detailed
investigations of the site were required and that a remediation strategy would
need to be devised for what was emerging as an increasingly complex site. The
timescales subsequently slipped to 2023/24 to allow that work to take place,
with plans to provide more substantial temporary accommodation for the school
for the first three years of operation.
Early DfE estimates of the cost of remediating
the site to the standard required, at approximately £6.9m, raised concerns that
the scheme was becoming unaffordable. Alongside the cost of preparing a
temporary site, the estimated project costs escalated considerably and drew
ministerial attention.
The DfE had proposed the cost of remediation be
shared with Middlesbrough Council. It was agreed in principal that the cost
should be deducted from the value of the site, and that should be the final
price paid by the DfE. In the event that the remediation costs were greater
than the site value, the additional cost was to be shared equally by the DfE
and Middlesbrough Council up to a maximum cap of £1.7m each. The Council would only agree to pay the costs
of remediation that the DfE could evidence, was required to build the school.
Following more detailed site investigations,
the DfE had revised the indicative remediation costings to £4.33m. Under the
mechanism agreed, that would mean a Council contribution of £1.55m over and
above the value of the site, which was below the cap of £1.7m.
The Council was currently checking those costs
and the remediation strategy that underpinned them. Alternative approaches to
the remediation were also being investigated with a view to reducing the costs
and timescales involved. Further information on the remediation of the site was
detailed at paragraphs 8 to 16 of the submitted report.
OPTIONS
Re-use
for operational purposes - No Council operational service requirement had been
identified.
Other
uses - Although the site was capable of being used for other purposes, future
use for the development of a secondary school was preferred. Use of the subject
land for any other purpose would have left the Outwood Academy Riverside with
no site on which to develop a permanent school building.
Do
nothing - The property would have remained in its present state. Whilst the
subject land would have been retained for potential Council use in the future,
the liability and responsibility for maintaining and holding the property would
have remained with the Council in the interim.
ORDERED
1. That the sale of the subject land to the DfE, for the sum
of £1,211,596 (plus fees), be approved to enable the construction of a new
secondary school to be used as the permanent location for Outwood Academy
Riverside.
2. That capital funds up to the sale value of the land, plus a
further sum of up to £1.7m, be utilised to assist the DfE in remediating the
site subject to the DfE providing robust evidence of the costs.
REASON
To meet
the Council’s requirements to generate capital receipts and bring a vacant,
unused parcel of land into far more beneficial use in the future.
Disposal
would facilitate the construction of the Riverside Outwood Academy, creating
additional secondary school capacity to assist the Council in its statutory
duty to ensure there were sufficient places to meet rising demand.
Without
an appropriate site on which to permanently locate the new school, its
continued operation would not be possible. The school was currently operating
out of temporary accommodation until the new building was completed, and would
otherwise reach full capacity by 2022/23 and be unable to accept any more
pupils.
The
proposal supported delivery of the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan.
Supporting documents: