Church want our school to rent their land for 55 grand a year or become church school

[haveapear]

I've name changed for this.

Recently our primary changed sites in a local shake up. We used to have a 3 tier system but now have a two tier, all middle schools closed and our small primary moved to a previous Church of England middle school. There was some discussion at the time as to whether to become a church school and it was decided not to.

The council promised at the time that everything would be ok.

Now however the church has decided that it wants 55 grand a year to lease the land unless we become a church school.

It sounds like a lot of money to me and the school certainly couldn't pay this so is planning to appeal, any views ?

I would suggest that you talk to the council because if they had half a brain they should have tied up the long term lease of the site when the school moved there.
If they did not then I would consider shooting somebody for incompetence.
I would suggest that maybe you ask the council for the money as they have caused this problem if they did not get the thing all sorted out.