Future of the remaining land - Sandye Place Academy site in Sandy consultation

We want to explore options for the future of the remaining land through this consultation.

The whole site is 6.9 hectares / 17.11 acres in size – or 39 football pitches if that’s easier to picture. There are Grade 2 listed features including the Mansion House and the Dovecote. There are 1970’s built school buildings and there is also a converted hangar which provided a school hall. The site adjoins St Swithun’s Church of England VC Primary School which used to share the playing field with Sandye Place Academy when both educational sites were in operation, some of which has since been provided to St Swithun’s Church of England VC Primary School to ensure it has sufficient outdoor space. This arrangement will remain in place. It is important to note that there are significant protections in place for the site. It is in a conservation area and contains listed heritage assets. Any listed assets such as the Mansion House would need to be safeguarded as a heritage asset in the local community. Any future use would need to be sympathetic to these issues including the need to retain appropriate open space.

Currently, the inactive site offers little value to the local community and costs us (and therefore taxpayers) to keep it secure. Unlocking the future of the site could deliver the following community benefits:

• new or enhanced public open space, riverside walks, and a new bridge over the river joining up the Green Wheel allowing residents in Beeston Green to walk through to Sandy
• generating a capital receipt (income) which would help to fund our capital budget – which is used to maintain or build new assets such as schools, care homes and roads, and remove the cost to us, and therefore taxpayer, of keeping the vacant site safe and secure
• providing new homes. Sandy has had relatively low levels of housing growth compared to other parts of Central Bedfordshire, and more people living centrally in Sandy will likely boost footfall to the High Street supporting local shops and businesses
• providing community access to the Mansion House and open green space

The site has been listed as an ‘asset of community value’, which could mean the community will have the opportunity to bid to purchase it. There are also other options we want to explore with the community to come up with the best plan. Balanced against this, any options for the site’s future would need to be financially viable.

The options could be - but are not fully restricted to:

• lease or transfer to the community. This would require a valid expression of interest and business case
• other viable uses suggested by the community
• a market sale. As the site is registered as an asset of community value, a community group would be given the opportunity to make a bid to buy it

All of these are possible options that we wish to explore in detail with the help from the local community in Sandy, and others, such as interest groups. Further information on all the options is outlined on the following web pages.