A Glasgow primary school is set to get a new outdoor play area after the council agreed a swap deal for a former janitor’s house.
Councillors have approved plans for an exchange with one of the council’s arms-length organisations, City Property.
The deal will see the council take over the old janitor’s house at Anderston Primary School, on Port Street, which is set to be demolished to make way for an outdoor learning space.
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City Property will receive a council-owned flat on Shakespeare Street which officials have said is of an equivalent value to the schoolhouse.
A council official told councillors the old house has been “abandoned for quite some time” and is in a “poor condition”.
“The school has had aspirations for some time to develop the space that the janitor’s house sits on into a trail for the kids to use as an additional play area,” he added.
While the council has found money to cover the cost of demolishing the house and installing play equipment for the pupils, its budget “didn’t extend to purchasing the property”.
The excambion [property exchange] allows the redevelopment plans to go ahead. The flat on Shakespeare Street has been “declared as surplus”, the official said. “We’ve tried to sell it before and the sale fell through.
“That property still sits within the GCC account, so rather than coming up with additional capital to purchase the janitor’s house at Anderston, we are proposing that we give City Property the flat in Shakespeare Street and they give us the house in Anderston.
“That means that no money has to change hands. Both properties have been valued and are an equivalent value to each other.”
Glasgow’s contracts and property committee agreed to progressing with the deal at a meeting on Thursday.
A report, presented at the meeting, said the janitor’s house has been “vacant for several years and requires substantial upgrading to make it habitable”.
It added: “The residential flat at Shakespeare Street will be incorporated into City Property Glasgow (Investments) LLP investment portfolio and let out accordingly.”
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