THE leader of the Herefordshire Independents questioned whether the council would be getting value for money if it agreed to sell a city centre building to the county’s new university project.

Cabinet approved its approach to council-owned property and land disposals in support of the development of the New Model in Technology and Engineering (NMiTE) at a meeting last week.

Sites put forward included Gaol Street car park and Franklin House which will be sold or leased to the Herefordshire Tertiary Trust (HTET) – the group developing a business plan for NMiTE.

But Councillor Bob Matthews said he was concerned that selling Franklin House – highlighted by HTET as a possible administrative hub with some teaching space – would not offer value for money.

He said he understood the council had purchased the building at a cost of £1.2million and spent £600,000 to make it fit for purpose.

"You are putting it on the market for £600,000/£700,000 – there is something terribly wrong there,” he said.

"Things are happening like that and this is why we must keep checks on asset disposal to make sure we are getting value for money."

However, he was told that the building had been professionally valued and that only indicative prices had been given. The initial purchase of the property was funded by Advantage West Midlands and it would be sold at the current market value.

“This whole project is starting to cause me some concern,” he said, adding that the council was taking measures to have all of its staff under one roof, while the university project was spread across the city.

Councillor Tony Johnson said that was at the university's request.

"From memory, [the reasons for that] are that it would be extraordinarily difficult to find one place in the city that could accommodate the number of students," he said.

Councillor Anthony Powers, who said the proposal had the full support of the It’s Our County group, asked whether it was possible for any building on Gaol Street car park to be on stilts so the parking area could be retained.

However, he was told it was unlikely that any building could be more than three stories high as it was within the city walls.

Cllr Jenny Bartlett added it was necessary to get some kind of confirmation from the new government that there would be support for the project, as previously stated by George Osborne in 2015.

The cabinet was also told full evaluations on whether specific sites were practical were yet to be undertaken.

Cllr Philip Price added: "There are a lot of unknowns. This is just identifying a process we are going to follow.

"Let's get behind it and try to make it happen and encourage those people who have given enormous amounts of their time to make this happen."