Sutton Council has committed almost a million pounds to develop a planning application for a free school on the Sutton Hospital site, before a provider has committed to building there.

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At the Children, Family and Education Committee meeting on Thursday councillors agreed to endorse the hospital site as the first site for a new secondary school in 2018 alongside £950,000 for the planning application.

The decision is subject to a cooling off period.

A council spokesman said: “Identifying the professional costs to develop a planning application is a part of every project.

“In this case the local authority is estimating the costs within this particular project so that the provider, when agreed, will still have the scope they need to tailor the project to their needs and curriculum priorities.

“We judge that the risk is exceptionally low based on our discussions with interested providers, our knowledge of the site, and our knowledge of how schools are designed to standard accommodation schedules.

“The council's view is that developing a planning application for any new school is a cost to the public purse.”

Deputy leader of Sutton Conservatives Councillor Tony Shields said: “This is good money after bad.

“This is Sutton Liberal Democrats using public money in a cynical way in order to conceal the full extent of the disastrous decision to spend £8m on land not suitable for a school.

“Yet they will persist in spending public money on granting themselves planning permission, it is entirely wrong.”

The council purchased the land in Belmont in March for £8m with the aim of building a new secondary school on the site but faced a set-back in October when Greenshaw Learning Trust (GLT) refused to build on the site saying it was too small.

The council has always maintained the land is big enough for the desperately-needed secondary school - despite the Education Funding Agency (EFA) saying otherwise.

Instead GLT and EFA favoured the all-weather pitch in Rosehill, which the Liberal Democrat councillors vetoed in September.

This month the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education announced it wanted to build a Church of England secondary school for 11-19 year olds, specialising in health and science on the site by September 2018.

The borough needs two schools by 2018 to cater for demand on school places.

The council’s Local Plan is expected to be published in February next year and will outline what the future of the Rosehill site is.