Published: Friday, 2nd February, 2007 09:45
£6,000 a year to Common Good
By David Knox
Print Article
PEEBLES will pocket around £1 million if Kingsland Primary School moves to Neidpath Grazings.
The District Valuer has set an annual rental price of £6,000 to the town’s Common Good Fund for the 4-hectare site.
He also recommends a five-yearly review with an increase in line with the current Retail Price Index.
And loose calculations predict the 99-year lease will be worth almost £1 million.
Councillor Catriona Bhatia welcomed the valuation. She said: “I think most people would agree that improved educational facilities will be to the benefit of the Common Good in the wider sense, but the additional income stream is also part of the overall picture.
“Other towns where new schools are being built have had to either purchase land or do a quid pro quo with landowners for additional housing – and in some cases both.
“In Peebles’ case, the town and generations of children will benefit.”
Neidpath Grazings was purchased in 1919 by the town’s provost, magistrates and councillors.
The site, which is currently used as agricultural land, draws in an annual rent of £350.
Local councillor Nancy Norman believes it is vital that the land is retained by the town – and that Peebles fully benefits from its assets.
She said: “Every generation should make a contribution to enhancing the Common Good Fund. We should not merely rest on the generosity or foresight of previous generations.
“Importantly the Common Good Fund retains ownership of the land.”
Although every indication points towards Kingsland being rebuilt on the out-of-town site, the move won’t progress until a best value report is published and backed by Scottish Borders Council.
Leona Bendall, from the council’s education department, believes the valuation of the land will be met with approval. She said: “When you consider that we paid over £1 million for the site at Earlston for the new school, it doesn’t seem so bad to pay £6,000 per year.
“The money we would pay for the Neidpath site would be going back into the town and not to a private landowner – which has to be good news for Peebles.”
But campaigners against relocating the school to Neidpath believe it would make more economic sense to build on the alternative site of Violet Bank.
David Turnbull from Peebles Ex-Cornets Association said: “Is £6,000 per year worth losing such an attractive green field site over? We are talking about one of the most attractive entrances to any town in Scotland – how do you put a value on losing that?
“The council’s own QC said the Common Good Fund would benefit most by the land being sold, which flies in the face of what they are now saying.
“The council already owns part of Violet Bank, which is a brown field site, so it surely makes economic sense to move there.”
A best value report on the relocation of Kingsland is expected to go before the council’s executive in March.
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