DEVON County Council is hoping to bag up to £9 million from the sale of property and land it no longer needs by April next year.

Members of a committee that oversees assets gave the green light for more sites to be put on the market in a bid to raise cash for the council.

The council has already sold four sites in the current financial year, which ends at the start of April 2027, for a total of £785,000 and it expects to make between £6 million to £8 million from sites already declared surplus – including Exeter’s Larkbeare House.

The land and property committee approved the disposal of six more sites, including part of a car park at Axminster Fire Station, a building at the former Kenton Primary School, and a parcel of land that had been earmarked for an A38 slip road near Ivybridge but which won’t go ahead.

Those could add to the total being targeted for this financial year depending on how quickly they are marketed and sold.

Officers stated the property market was “challenging” and that they were “constantly having to fight to keep disposals on track”.

Members of the committee heard that even though the major reorganisation of Devon’s councils had now been announced – meaning the prospective abolition of the county council – the committee still had authority to take decisions.

Some committee members asked whether some of the properties being sold could be kept and developed into social housing.

However, officers stated the buildings being sold were small, as were the plots of land, and that previous guidance had been for the council to stay away from property development because of issues other councils had found themselves in when they entered the housebuilding industry.