KENT County Council has made £2.4m from the sale of primary schools in the last 10 years but education chiefs insist they are not asset stripping.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that despite wide-ranging mergers and closures of its primary schools, Kent has actually made far less than many other education authorities from selling school land and buildings over the last decade.

According to a survey, Essex made £4.6million over the same period, while Bexley made nearly £6million and Bromley £2.3million. Top of the list was Oxford which made £39million.

Kent education chiefs say they have made no money from many former church school sites because they have been handed back to church authorities at no cost. They also downplayed the prospects of a significant windfall from future sell-offs resulting from the more recent primary shake-up.

Of the 25 school sites KCC sold between 1997 and 1998, just under half were returned to either church authorities, trustees or to local councils who owned the freehold.

However, a number of other sites have been sold to developers for housing. The most lucrative sale for the county council was the sale of land at Westborough Primary School in Maidstone to developers Crest Nicholson, which raised nearly £1.8million in 2004. Developers paid KCC £485,000 for land and buildings at Lower Halstow School in Sittingbourne, while house builders Bellway paid £170,000 for land at the former Southborough training centre in Maidstone, attached to South Borough Primary School.

Meanwhile, the sale of a bungalow that was part of Broadwater Primary School in Tunbridge Wells raised £205,000 in 2005.

Cllr Mark Dance (Con), KCC’s cabinet member for school organisation, said Kent’s policy was to ensure it had schools in the right place and that money raised was ploughed back into education.

Government pressure to address surplus places and falling birth rates meant KCC had to address the issue of empty classrooms.

“Our schools need to be in the right place. Where we have a lot of houses being built, we need to be ready for an increase in the population. Our problem is that a lot of our schools have what are called ‘reverters’ placed on them which means they have had to be returned to the church authorities.”