The council will borrow more than £3 million to spend on new sports pitches – so three former schools sites can be sold off for housing.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council says more than 600 homes could be built on the former sites of Berry Hill High School, Edensor Technology College and Mitchell High School, meaning their sale would raise a 'significant' amount for the authority.

But as the sites previously included outdoor sports facilities, the council has been looking at how new pitches can be provided elsewhere in the city to support the release of the land for housing. Cabinet members agreed an updated sports pitch mitigation strategy in a behind-closed-doors meeting in June, through which it would 'maximise its financial position'.

Councillors will now be asked to approve a £3.256 million increase to the authority's capital programme to pay for the agreed measures. The report to Thursday's full council meeting says that the funds raised through the future sale of the school sites would result in a 'net positive equation' for taxpayers.

The report states: "The approval of a capital programme update to support the sports pitch mitigation will assist with the release of residential redevelopment on the former school sites. This will help to deliver 600-plus new homes in the city and will help to contribute towards generating land receipts for the council.

Councillors will be asked to approve the £3m increase to pay for the agreed measures (Nub News).

"Should the update not be approved, this could significantly reduce the housing unit potential at each of the former school sites, and also mean that each of the potential land receipts achieved through disposal is significantly reduced.

"It is therefore recommended that the city council approves the increase to the capital programme on the understanding that land receipts will ultimately be achieved."

Each of the school sites closed more than 10 years ago, and their sports pitches have remained out of use ever since, meaning they are now classed as 'lapsed sites'. In October, cabinet member approved an initial sports pitch mitigation strategy, which set out how alternative provision for football, rugby union, hockey and cricket could be provided at sites across the city.

Updated proposals, including 'improvements on affordability' were agreed by the cabinet in June, but this report was not published as it contained 'sensitive commercial information'. The required change to capital programme needs to be approved by the full council.

Approving the full £3.256m will 'ensure delivery' but the council may end up borrowing less than this due to financial contributions from developers. And the investment is 'forecast to be recovered in full' through the sale of the school sites.

A council spokesperson said: "The city council's sports pitch mitigation strategy is designed to explore options to revitalise old, disused sporting facilities that have been redundant for the past decade. The strategy looks at the feasibility to instead, build desperately needed new homes for our communities across the south of the city.

"There have not been any pitches on the sites for the past 10 years and it is high time the sites had a purpose for the nearby communities. The proposed plan will see the local communities directly benefit from seven new replacement sports facilities, at no effective cost to the public purse with money reclaimed from the land receipts.

"Swapping bad pitches for improved sporting facilities elsewhere, and freeing up the old sports sites to build new homes is a strong and possible option."

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