THE rocketing price of York housing land looks set to boost council coffers through the sale of former school sites.

It had been estimated by City of York Council that part of the Oaken Grove Primary School site in Haxby would fetch between £350,000 and £600,000, but it is now set to be sold for more than £1 million.

The 1.1 acre site, with planning permission for 27 houses, is only part of the whole school site.

The provision of new accommodation at the Ralph Butterfield Primary School, in Haxby, will account for £247,500 of the income from the sale; the rest will go into the council's capital fund.

The capital fund pays for building work across the council's services, from refurbishment of elderly people's homes to highways work and swimming pool repairs.

To fund the projects planned in 2002/3, the council needs £2.1 million, so the additional proceeds from the Oaken Grove sale could provide a third of this.

The former Shipton Street Infant School building, off Burton Stone Lane, on a site of just over one acre, has also closed this year and councillors are to consider its future in September.

Bill Woolley, assistant director of environment and development services, said councillors would have to decide whether to pay for urgent repair work and postpone a decision on whether to sell Shipton Street until the future of the nearby Bootham Crescent football ground was revealed, or whether to sell now and save the cost of the repairs.

In 2004, Fulford Cross and Northfield Special Schools are set to close and their sites will also be sold off.

Current estimates from the council predict they will bring in £5.5 million, to be spent on building two new special schools - but they could fetch much more.

Fulford Cross, just off Fulford Road, has landscaped grounds in a 5.3 acre site, and Northfield, in Acomb, off Beckfield Lane, has 5.9 acres.

Edward Knock, regional land manager for Hunters Estate Agents, said it was now usual for land to sell for £1 million an acre in York "given no unusual encumbrance".

He said the two special school sites would be attractive to housing developers because they were green field sites, much more rare in the city than "brown field" or urban sites, so could be developed into family housing rather than apartments and town houses.

Meanwhile, city councillors will be asked on Friday to approve the funding for an extension at Ralph Butterfield School in Haxby.

The school needs a two-classroom mobile unit and building work to cater for the extra pupils and also the after-school club and the Rising Fives group which were previously based at Oaken Grove.

Updated: 11:52 Friday, July 26, 2002