Plans for Sandye Place Academy site heading back to the drawing board after widespread criticism

Before it became an academy, the school was known as Sandye Place Middle School

The potential sale of “the jewel in the crown” of Sandy has been deferred for a fresh report to be compiled by Central Bedfordshire Council officers.

A consultation process is planned on proposals for the future of Sandye Place Academy and Allison House residential home, which would include housing development.

But a report to the local authority’s executive was dubbed “absolutely ill considered and ill thought through” by a Conservative councillor and also criticised by Independent CBC councillors.

Town mayor Joanna Hewitt warned: “This is proposing to sell the jewel in the crown of Sandy.

“It appears no consideration has been given to other funding opportunities to preserve the park and add community assets to the town.

“Historically Sandye Place has been the heart of the town with horticultural shows, carnivals, marching bands and parties in the park among events staged there.”

Town councillor Nigel Aldis referred to residents “caring passionately” about the area known as the ‘Spa’ (Sandye Place Academy), saying: “The site has been designated as an asset of community value.

“We don’t want the ‘Spa’ covered with high density housing. There would be a tremendous amount of properties.

“There’s been a catalogue of misinformation about the state of the mansion house, a listed building, which has been on site since 1670 when Charles II was King.

“Hopefully in the reign of Charles III we might get the building restored to something worthy of its status.”

Independent Biggleswade West councillor and executive member for business, housing and public assets Steve Watkins replied: “There’s adequate time for further discussion and consultation.

“It’s highly valued by the community because of the history and size of the site. The community would be given a fair chance to buy it on the open market.

“It’s currently boarded up and costs around £100,000 a year and isn’t delivering any benefits to the community. I know housing isn’t popular.

“It doesn’t mean the whole site will be concreted over. The majority of it would be protected as open green space, accessible to the public daily.”

Independent Ampthill councillor and executive member for adult social care Mark Smith said: “I’m in favour of the reprovision of Allison House.

“Having visited a few months ago, the home is very tired. The lifts are always breaking down. I like the idea of a cafe in there and youth provision, with the integration of the community into our care homes.”

Conservative Cranfield and Marston Moretaine councillor Sue Clark described it as “an absolutely ill considered and ill thought through report” saying: “We’ve waited for years as a council for the Secretary of State to release this land.

“That enables us to put forward a plan with options for the residents. Clearly Sandy residents aren’t impressed with this plan.

“Why does the council want to lose control of any part of this site, so close to town centre and used for the carnival?”

CBC’s executive agreed to defer the project to consider the implications for a master plan for the area, exploring all funding options and protecting biodiversity.

Sandy Town Council had called a crisis meeting on Friday in a bid to halt the plans.

Cllr Aldis said: "About 70 members of the public were there, along with councillors, and made some very good points about housing, and why Sandye Place should be left as an amenity for the town. Generally, the concern was that there would be more building on the site, and concern that once they [CBC] had got land for the care home, that the rest would be sold off.

"Although open space was promised to be retained for the carnival, there were fears that once the developer had got their hands on the site, that they might not be willing to reserve that kind of amenity. They [the public] wanted open space to be retained for the carnival, and for some water frontage along the mill pond.”Speaking after the CBC meeting yesterday, he added: "We feel a lot more positive that there will be a good outcome to this and feel that CBC might be prepared to listen. We believe that they will put some of the site up for sale but we hope there will be tighter control over what goes where. The outcome was really what we wanted and we feel there might be a lot more discussion about what the town wants."

Sandy Town Council was represented at the Central Bedfordshire council meeting by mayor Cllr Joanna Hewitt, Cllr Nigel Aldis, resident Mrs L Darlow and addressed the meeting along with ward councillors Bell and Pashby.