Council to enter lease agreement for school site

Nottingham City Council is planning on entering into a lease agreement for a school that never opened, as part of plans to redevelop the site into a special school.

The 210-place Waterside Primary School was due to open in the Trent Basin estate in Nottingham in September 2024, but the Department for Education (DfE) withdrew funding due to low pupil demand.

Last year, the authority announced it would be redeveloped into a special school, which the Local Democracy Reporting Service said was estimated to cost £6m.

Council documents now show the authority is planning on entering into a 125-year lease for the school site from the DfE in order to expand Rosehill School's specialist SEND provision.

Rosehill School, which was judged to be outstanding in all inspected areas by Ofsted in February 2025, is maintained by the council as a community special school and is currently operating at full capacity.

The initial project to build Waterside Primary School was overseen by the DfE, with Greenwood Academies Trust in line to run the school once it was open, but the trust said it had to "reluctantly" pull out after funding was withdrawn.

The council previously said the expansion of would create 60 additional school places for children aged four to 19 with special educational needs and disabilities, an education health and care plan and a diagnosis of autism.

Documents say: "This would significantly increase Nottingham's maintained specialist capacity at a time when demand for SEND provision continues to grow rapidly."

They add: "Existing specialist provision across the city is operating at or near capacity, resulting in increasing pressure on place sufficiency and a greater reliance on costly independent and out-of-area placements."

Other locations considered by the council included the former Glenbrook Management Centre site, a former mental health centre in Bilborough that was subsequently demolished, but this was rejected, with council officers deciding Waterside Primary School was more suitable.

If the lease is agreed, the council will be responsible for security of the site, and the estimated cost for standing guards and three CCTV towers is £370,000.

Work to redevelop the school site must commence by January 2027 and be completed by October 2028.

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