Historic Stibbington Centre once used by thousands on school trips to be sold to unnamed buyer
The former Stibbington Outdoor Centre, once visited by children on school trips, will be sold to an unnamed buyer. The outdoor education centre in Stibbington, near Peterborough, is owned by Cambridgeshire County Council.
The Grade II Listed building was built around 1871 to 1872 and was first used as a school. It was later used for day trips and overnight stays.
The county council agreed to close the centre in 2023 as the authority said it faced making a “substantial loss” as visitor numbers declined. The site was put up for sale in 2024, with nine proposals made to buy the building. Councillors agreed to sell the site to the recommended preferred bidder at an assets and procurement committee on Wednesday (January 22).
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Full details of who the building will be sold to and future use of the site have not been made public at this stage. Papers published by the county council said the new owners “plan to use the building in a manner that respects the location and will bring employment opportunities to the local area”.
Councillor Simon Bywater said he was “quite excited” about the plans for the centre. Councillor Mark Goldsack said he believed the plans were the “perfect solution” for the building. Councillor Ros Hathorn, chair of the committee, said it would be nice when the sale has gone through to let everyone know what the building will be used for.
At the time the closure was agreed the county council said the money raised from the sale would be invested into the authority’s other two outdoor centres at Grafham Water and Burwell House. A report presented to councillors in 2023 said: “Dependent upon members approval of this proposal, the Stibbington site could be sold, with the capital receipt realised from ceasing use of the site being re-invested to sustain and improve other areas of the outdoor education service at both Grafham Water Centre and Burwell House, thus further mitigating the impact of this decision.”
Councillors heard this week that the money should not at first “be ring fenced to specific schemes”, but that a proposal could still be put together for investment in the other centres. Councillor Steve Count asked why it had taken so long for the building to be marketed and a preferred bidder chosen, when the closure had been agreed in early 2023.
Officers said the centre did not fully close until August 2023, after which they checked to see if any other services in the county council needed the building. They said there was then some due diligence before putting the building on the market in June 2024.
Cllr Count suggested that some of the work, such as seeing if any other service needed the building could have been done before the building fully closed, speeding up the process. Officers said they would take that point away and “look at any lessons learnt from that”.