WESTON ACADEMY IN TOTLAND COULD SOON BE TRANSFORMED INTO HOUSES

A primary school site in the West Wight — which has been empty for years — could soon be sold off and turned into houses. Weston Academy in Totland closed in December 2015 after its operators, the Academies Enterprise Trust, claimed pupil numbers were falling and cited funding pressures. The building has been empty since, and in recent years the Isle of Wight Council has secured nearly £200,000 funding to make the site suitable for housing. Through the Brownfield Land Release Fund, the council has used the money to attract a potential developer to the site, who will be chosen at a cabinet meeting next month. The cabinet will then agree to the terms of sale and then approve whether to sell the freehold of the site while the developer prepares the housing scheme, a council spokesperson confirmed. Indicative plans have been shared by bidders as part of the process after the site was marketed in August 2023 and final bids received in October 2023. A condition of the government’s funding was that the site must be released for housing by the end of March 2024. It is the 3rd site the Isle of Wight Council has received money for under the Brownfield Land Release Fund. The first was Thompson House in Gatcombe which has since been demolished to make way for housing and the other, the former site of the Island Learning Centre at Berry Hill in Lake, was agreed to be sold last year.