Steyning school cottages among council’s surplus property going on sale

Fletcherscroft and Whykeham Cottages, former caretakers’ homes next to the Steyning Grammar School, have both been vacant for some years and are in a poor state of repair.

The WSCC member consultation notice states: “The combined site does have some potential for residential development, but is not without its constraints. The properties are currently under offer to the Steyning Grammar School Foundation for additional boarding house use.”

Land at Westons Place and The Granary, Warnham are also on the list to sell. Two houses and various parcels of land there were originally acquired by the county council under statutory ‘blight notices’, as it was affected by the proposed A24 Horsham to Capel Highway Improvement Scheme. The houses, but not all the land, were subsequently declared surplus and sold off in 2007.

The road scheme has since been rescinded by the County Council in December 2011 and the council no longer needs the remaining plot.

A third area is land declared surplus is at Strood Green, Kirdford, which is an area of overgrown grassland of about 635 sq.m. It forms part of a much larger area, known as the Mens and the Cut, currently leased to the Sussex Wildlife Trust.

It has no direct access from the public highway and subject to its exclusion from the Trust’s lease, it is proposed to sell it, possibly in separate parcels to adjoining house owners.