Reigate Priory Junior School Move: £31m Contract Cleared

The building contract to move Reigate Priory Junior School out of Priory Park and into a new school at Woodhatch Place has been cleared. The East Surrey Shadow Authority, which becomes the borough’s new council next April, gave its consent at an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday 27 October.

The decision takes effect on Thursday 5 November unless councillors call it in by Wednesday 4 November, according to the notice of the decision.

The school has 600 places for children aged 7 to 11. Surrey County Council decided in January 2026 to rebuild it at Woodhatch Place on Cockshot Hill, after two years of looking at other options. The new school is due to open in 2029.

Why the shadow council had a say

Surrey County Council is still the education authority, and it has already decided to build the school. But since July, a government direction under Section 24 means the county needs the new council’s consent before entering contracts like this one. East Surrey Council takes over as the education authority for the borough next April.

The item first came to the shadow executive on 13 October and was put off. The minutes of that meeting say the Leader, Cllr Steve Wotton, asked for more information on the financial effect of awarding the contract in two parts. The original recommendations “could result in greater financial liability for East Surrey Council”, the minutes record.

At the same meeting, a councillor who is not on the executive asked whether rebuilding on the existing site could be looked at first. The Leader said any decision would have to be taken within the Section 24 rules.

On 27 October the executive agreed to let the county award both stages:

• the pre-construction contract, under which the builder finishes the design and prices the job
• the main design and build contract that follows

The county’s finance director can approve price changes on the first stage of up to 10% either way.

The report to the meeting also said the Leader would write to Surrey’s Leader asking for an analysis of a “hybrid” option, partly rebuilding on the Priory Park site and reusing some of the old building. The published decision does not mention that letter.

The money

The approved project budget is £31 million, including £25 million for the building contract. Five firms bid for it.

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According to the report:

• £10.69 million comes from the Department for Education’s Priority School Building Programme
• £20.20 million comes from the county’s School Basic Need grant
• £106,307 comes from old developer contributions found in a review in May
• £2.2 million had been spent by the end of September 2026

The bidder’s price holds until 5 November, 90 days after tenders went in on 7 August. After that, the county would have to re-tender, the report warns.

What the government said

The rebuilding programme the school belongs to began in 2014 and covered 277 schools. In a letter dated 7 September, the Department for Education said the programme is now complete, and Reigate Priory is “the only project in the programme whose underlying condition need remains completely unaddressed”.

The department said it supports the move to Woodhatch and expects building to start “at the earliest opportunity and within the 2026/27 financial year”. It said its advisers could not find a workable way to fix the problems on the current site. The reasons it gave:

• the building is Grade I listed
• a public right of way runs through the school site
• the school relies heavily on the public park for sport

If the project stalls, the report says the £10.7 million grant is at risk. It cannot be moved to a different scheme.

What happens if it does not go ahead

The county’s report is blunt about the existing building. It says the council is “likely to be unable to sustain a safe learning environment at the existing school site beyond 2029”.

It puts figures on the alternatives:

• about £130,000 a year in routine maintenance by the county
• £2.7 million to deal with longer-term condition problems, which would mean partly closing the school or moving pupils out for a long time
• £4.54 million for ten double temporary classrooms with toilets, including hire, installation and removal

The timetable

The report says the early start matters partly for wildlife reasons. If the first contract does not start in November, it says, “the critical window for ecological and arboricultural works will have passed”, adding at least a year’s delay.

What it means for you

The county’s target for finishing the building is May 2029, with a few months of slack built in. On that timetable, children now in infant classes would spend at least part of their junior years at Woodhatch.

Woodhatch Place is further for families who live north of Priory Park, and for those with children at Holmesdale Infant School. The county’s briefing slides acknowledge this and say the council “could consider” a shuttle bus. The slides make no firm commitment. Admissions to the school are already measured from Priory Park rather than Woodhatch, the slides say.

Woodhatch Place is also set to be East Surrey Council’s headquarters from April 2027. The headquarters report warned that the school build would share the site’s access and that Cockshot Hill “is likely to become more congested”. Our roadworks and travel page will carry any changes on Cockshot Hill once works are booked.

Any call-in of the decision has to be made by 4 November. We will report whether one is made.

Sources: decision notice and report to the East Surrey Shadow Authority Executive, 27 October 2026; minutes of the meeting of 13 October 2026; Department for Education letter of 7 September 2026; county briefing slides, all published on the shadow authority’s committee site.