Dorset Council is working to secure St Mary’s School near Shaftesbury so it can remain an asset to our community.
Cllr Tony Ferrari, Dorset Council, Economic Growth, Assets and Property Portfolio Holder, said: “Opportunities to secure sites like this for Dorset are rare. We are always looking at ways of improving delivery of services for Dorset children and adults and the purchase of the St Mary’s site near Shaftesbury will help us achieve that.
“Following a successful purchase, we will be engaging with local people and stakeholders for their views on the options for use of the site. We are however very ambitious for the site and are determined that it should remain an asset to our community. More information about how local people and stakeholders can contribute their views will be shared shortly.”
Activeiy centre for adults & children with special needs. Or holiday centre for family or single parents .
As a former Deputy Head of St. Mary’s.
As a former deputy head of St Mary’s, I would be delighted to see the school site used in the way proposed. It has a wealth of facilities which could be used in a variety of ways for youth activities.
The swimming pool at St Mary’s has been used very successfully as a commercial venture over the last few years. As a former member of staff, I paid to use the pool for a regular weekly swim and would welcome the opportunity to continue this practice if the business venture were to be resurrected after any purchase.
Great news and well done a huge asset indeed
May be a good site in part for a new hospital to cover North Dorset as it expands if it’s not going to used as a school anymore.
Another use maintaining education would be a college again to cover the North Dorset and local areas which all lie some considerable distance from Salisbury, Bath or Yeovil.What we don’t need is more housing to follow on from Gillingham’s southern extension. It’s no good building loads more accommodation if there aren’t login to be any jobs locally
You are purchasing it with council tax payers money?
So let me get this right – you are purchasing the site but you don’t actually know what you want to do with it and want the public to come up with suggestions.
Surely you need to have a plan and costings to be able decide whether a purchase is viable? If it were that good an opportunity a proper commercial organisation would have snapped it up by now. Ask yourself why that hasn’t happened.
Invest in a Waste to Energy plant!
Invest in MWE plant?
Good news re: school purchase. With an expanding population, a proper local sports centre would be good, as the Shaftesbury School is not really available for use by residents. Also use as a holiday camp area/ concerts and other indoor/ outdoor functions, as well as school uses.
I n essence this is good news, but in the current socio-economic climate I find myself bound to ask: 1. How much will it cost to purchase & what source/es of funding vwill be used. 2. How much will it cost to re-purpose the building. 3. How much will it cost to staff. 4. How much will it cost in annual maintenance. 5. The now surplus County Council site in Dorchester is of significant value, will it be used in part or as a whole to fund the St Mary project.
Why did you not apply the same consideration to Norden?
As a former deputy head of St Mary’s school, I would be pleased to see a successful purchase of the site for the proposed purposes. The wealth of facilities could be put to good use for the activites described.