PUBLIC land which had been proposed for £1.7 million of affordable housing will instead be given to a school, according to a confidential report. 

The 1.5 acres of land on Love Lane, Shaw, will be transferred to the Newbury Academy Trust to expand the capacity of Trinity School, in Shaw. 

West Berkshire Council (WBC), which owns the land, estimated it could sell it to a private developer for up to £1.9 million to build eight homes. 

The council also considered it for affordable housing: 12 homes, worth £1.7 million in total, could be built on the land. 

However, the land will be used as a sports pitch for the school. £1.5 million will move from the council’s education capital programme into the overall capital budget. 

The details were published in a report to the executive, which will meet on September 5. The confidential report was published on WBC’s website on August 28, before being removed a day later. 

According to the report, written by property services manager Richard Turner, the land was ‘up to this point proposed for potential housing development’. Transferring it to the school would ‘remove the potential for housing on the site and the associated capital receipt’.

Mr Turner said: “The alternative options for housing development and disposal of the site for capital receipt presents risks associated with planning consent and also the inherent risks of the housing development market.”

Trinity School is expanding, from an admission number of 187 to 210 as of this September, according to the report. 

Opposition councillors will be able to ask the executive about the plans on the September 5 meeting, but this will be in part two of the meeting, meaning the public and press are not allowed to observe.