‘Eyesore’ former Castleford school site set to be sold for housing by end of year
The former Redhill Infants school has been closed since 2015
An ‘eyesore’ former school site is set to be sold off for housing by the end of this year, Wakefield Council’s leader has said.
Denise Jeffery confirmed that land previously occupied by Redhill Infants, in Castleford, would soon be put on the market, six years after the school was demolished.
The site, on Queens Park Drive, has been earmarked for the construction of around 40 affordable homes.
The former school was bulldozed in 2019 because of concerns over trespassers and vandals.
Redhill Infants vacated the site 2015 after merging with Redhill Juniors to become Fairburn View Primary School.
They then moved into a new £500,000 school building on Stansfield Drive.
Coun Jeffery gave an update on plans for the site during a question and answer session with the public after the council’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday (September 17).
The response came after a local resident asked about the sale of council-owned land, adding: “Why have developers who have bought assets like Redhill Infants, for example, been allowed to leave them looking like an eyesore and not develop them?”
Coun Jeffery confirmed that the authority still had ownership of the land.
She said: “I do get the frustration. We still own it. But in general what happens is, developers buy sites and then land-bank them for a long time – for months, years.
“The frustration for the local communities is absolutely dreadful.
“But new legislation is coming in where, if they buy land and put an application in, it is going to have to be followed through.”
In 2022, the council’s regeneration scrutiny committee was told the West Yorkshire Combined Authority was preparing “options reports” for the Redhill site as councillors were given an update on affordable housing projects across the district.
Coun Jeffery added: “On Redhill, we haven’t sold it yet because it’s part of the housing investment fund to get 100 per cent affordable housing into the area
“But I do take the fact that it is an untidy site and I will make sure that it does get cleaned up until we start to move forward.
“We will be putting it forward for sale towards the end of the year.”
The council previously said demolition of the school was a ‘high priority’ as buildings on the site had deteriorated and the area would remain fenced off until a decision on its future was made.
A planning statement said: “The empty buildings pose a serious health and safety risk due to the high level of unwanted attention and anti-social behaviour being encountered.”