18th November 2025
From: FOI Officer
To: sheilaoliver
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:58 AM
Subject: Sale of Fir Tree Site
Dear Mrs Oliver
Sale of Fir Tree Site
The report states “The overall costs for the School itself which will include for the pre-planning, planning and professional costs, dealing with contamination, providing services and the overall construction equates to circa £8.5 million. Additional costs which have emerged through the planning application process to meet national and local policy requirements and extended works at and surrounding the School equate to circa £625,000. Much of this investment relates to the new recreational facilities at the Harcourt Street site, including the newly laid out sports pitch, the multi use games area, the additional changing facilities and the landscaping works to deal with formalising footpath routes and planting to improve the visual appearance of the remaining open space area in community use. There are other significant costs in promoting and designing the proposals.
On the basis of the approved funding for the School, the capital receipt from the sale of Fir Tree School based on a recent valuation undertaken for SMBC represents about 20% of the overall costs set out above. The capital receipt represents a significant element of the funding. Therefore losing this capital receipt to provide for a replacement quantum of open space would jeopardise delivery of the project.
The figures are based on circa £7.6m as the cost of the School, the revised valuation of the Fir Tree site referred to £1.8m, but had to be discounted by the loss of the car park and nursery building from the potential disposal site area to £1.625m. This latter figure (£1.625m) represents 21.3% of the cost of the School (£7.6m), which was rounded down to 20%. The costs to provide additional sports facilities and deal with other matters that have arisen through the planning process at the Mill Lane site is £625,000, with and additional £260,000 estimated as costs for the planned improvements to open space and sports facilities at Fir Tree Primary land. The latter two figures, added to the cost of the School (£7.6m), make £8,485,000, which was rounded to circa £8.5m to represent the “overall” costs for the purpose of the note.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information & Data Protection Processing Officer
From: sheilaoliver [mailto:sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com]
Sent: Mon 8/27/2007 5:21 PM
To: Cllr Dave Goddard; Steve Lamb; John Schultz; Bob Wainwright
Subject: Pawprints
Dear Councillor Goddard
Just to get your pawprints on this, on page 118 of the agenda document from last Thursday’s planning and highways committee agenda it states that the sale of the Fir Tree site will raise 20% of the cost of the new school. As I understand it it will only raise £1.2 million (and £600,000 of this is going on Sport England’s demands), so how can 20% of the £8.5 million cost of the school be what you are getting for the Fir Tree site. I really need an explanation of this one quite quickly.
Lots of love
Sheila
