Council undervalues school site?

6.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 19th Jun 2008

Cllr Mike Barker outside Harrowgate Hill Infants site

Councillor Mike Barker has discovered that the former Harrowgate Hill Infants' School on the border between North Road and Harrowgate Hill wards is up for sale for £1million!

Yet less than a year ago the Council sold it to property developers for just £560,000.

How could the value of this site almost double in less than a year?

Was the Council so desperate to get rid of the site that it sold it for less than it was worth?

Mike says, "This incompetence has cost the local community a valuable asset and a lot of money."

The local newspaper reported what Mike had discovered and headlined the important questions asked by him.

Lib Dem councillors in North Road ward wanted the school to be converted to a desperately needed Community Centre for their area.

Did the Council offload the school in such haste so that could not happen?

"Has a property developer profited from the sale of an asset which could have provided a community centre?" asked Mike.

This is another shocking mismanagement of public funds by this Labour Council. The overspend of £2.2 million on the Pedestrian Heart and the £1.9 million overspend on the Eastern Transport Corridor cost the people of Darlington over £4 million. Now it seems that nearly half a million pounds has been lost on the sale of this school. That would have gone a long way towards providing a community centre in the area.

"It suggests a lack of care is being taken of public assets that are put in the trust of the Council."