PERMISSION is being sought from the Secretary of State for education to sell off a derelict Halesowen school site which has labelled an eyesore by residents.

Ian McGuff, Dudley Council’s assistant director for quality and partnership, told a Halesowen Area Committee meeting last week Michael Gove MP’s permission was needed to “dispose of” Holt Farm Primary which closed in 2006.

Mr McGuff was responding to a call from Halesowen North Labour candidate Hilary Bills who said the Holt Road building was a blot on the landscape and had become a haven for anti-social behaviour including drug taking.

Mrs Bills, who used to teach at the school, said she wanted to see the building either demolished or put to use.

She told the meeting: “When I go past and look at it it makes me cry.

“To leave that building there to rot is just wrong.

“People living around it feel it devalues their homes.”

Mr McGuff said the council was waiting for permission to sell the site and that he could not comment on the state of the building, but would “look into what can be done to provide an answer.”

Halesowen North councillor Lesley Faulkner told the meeting two developers were interested in the site, which it was hoped would be on the market by the autumn.