Sale of school land delayed by challenge

The sale of the grounds of a doomed Black Country school has been delayed after councillors challenged the release of the land.

A cluster of councillors, who were led by Cradley and Foxcote ward member Timothy Crumpton, are fighting the decision to make the site of Cradley High School available for bids. Cabinet member for children’s services Councillor Liz Walker had given the all-clear for the sale last week. But now the verdict will go to a meeting of the department’s select committee in the next 10 days.

But councillor Walker has brushed off the challenge, saying she was sure the decision would be upheld.

She said: “It’s the prerogative of any member to call a decision in but given that this has been debated so thoroughly it is disappointing that we are now in another delaying tactic.

“Frankly, at the end of the day all that will happen is I will be asked to reconsider and I will reconsider. But I think I will come to the same conclusion unless someone conjures millions of pounds from somewhere.”

The axe has been hanging over Cradley High for months and the school bell rang for the final time earlier this month. In the wake of the closure councillors declared the site in Homer Hill Road surplus to requirements at last week’s meeting.

If the sale goes ahead, Dudley Council expects to receive a substantial sum for the land which will then be ploughed back into the authority’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme to renovate the borough’s schools.

Councillor Walker has said the site may be used to provide leisure and community facilities after the closure of Cradley Leisure Centre, on the school grounds.

The council signalled the end for Cradley High in February last year after almost 30 years. The school had fallen £500,000 into the red due to increasing numbers of surplus places.