Seven weeks ago the Southern Downs Regional Council decided to invite two parties to submit a tender for the purchase of Slade Campus, yet last week council staff met with a third party interested in buying the property.
Slade Lives Again committee president Ian Perkins is angered by the situation as the group had spent a lot of community money already in preparing their tender before the September 1 closing date the council had given them.
“We’re spending a lot of community money on this. Is the council selling it under our feet?” Mr Perkins asked.
“As far as we know, we’re involved in a legal process with the council,” he said.
The council’s director of corporate services Andrew Ireland admitted that representatives from a group wanting to possibly purchase Slade Campus for classroom tuition and accommodation for a helicopter flying school had arrived by helicopter at the site last Thursday.
“They wanted to look at Slade with maybe the view of purchasing the campus,” Mr Ireland said.
“At this point of time, until that tender process is finished, we won’t be looking at any other party,” he said.
The second group invited to submit a tender for the purchase of the campus is Christian Community Ministries, who runs Warwick Christian College.
Chief executive officer John Lyndon was unavailable for comment at time of print.
Story: Rebecca Brown
