A COVENANT to guarantee the future use of Malvern Hills College has been formally backed by councillors.

At last night's full council meeting, Malvern Hills District Council voted to "respect" the covenant put in place over the college.

This guarantees its educational use until such time as no need is identified for it.

The vote came after a rally in nearby Priory Park where up to 500 people showed their support for the historic arts venue.

It was brought forward by Conservative councillor Jeremy Owenson, who said it was time for the council to make a clear statement in support of the bid to save the college.

He said: "I am sure every councillor has had lots of communication with the Save the College group over the last couple of weeks and we have had lots of discussions about what the council is doing to commit to the covenant.

"It is important to show we respect the covenant, it is not a political issue, it is a local issue and most of us would like the chance to say we respect it."

Cllr Owenson asked the council to vote to commit to respecting the covenant and doing all it can to keep it open as a teaching centre.

Councillors backed the decision, which eventually came after a curious exchange in the meeting which saw councillors agree to vote to hold a vote on the motion, and then vote on it.

Seconding the motion, Cllr Paul Bennett asked whether there was a potential conflict of interest with the council over the sale.

He asked: "Is it true that the council gets half the proceeds if the building is sold?"

Responding to Cllr Bennett, council chief executive Vic Allison said this was the case, adding: "If the conditions for a change of use are met, and there is an uplift in value because of that change in use, then the council does share that uplift 50/50 with the owner.

"There is a baseline price which kicks in based on the purchase price back in 2008 (when MHDC sold the college) which needs to be inflated to get the today value of the property.

"A new value then is created for the property based on the change of use so if that exceeds the baseline then yes, you are right we would share the proceeds 50/50 with the current owners."

When the college was sold in 2008, the Council put a covenant in place which requires the site be used only for educational purposes until there is no longer a functional need for the college.

This determination regarding the need for a college can only be made by the Education and Skills Funding Agency and WCG.

Earlier this year, the ESFA, at the request of Warwickshire College Group, did determine there was no longer a functional need for the College.

However, this decision did not consider the range of adult courses offered by the college.

Instead, the determination focused solely on the 16-19 provision.