In an extraordinary City of Sydney council meeting on Monday night, the deal to sell the City-owned Wattle St Depot to the State Government for a new school site was put back on the table, with Lord Mayor Clover Moore cutting the asking price by $8.5 million.

Cr Moore, who was encouraged to accept the State Government’s original asking price by Liberal Cr Edward Mandla, urged the Department of Education to resume the sale of the Ultimo site.

Cr Mandla said common sense has prevailed. “I knew common sense had to break out when Patrice Pandaleos, the Liberal candidate for (the state seat of) Sydney kept telling me Clover Moore and the City of Sydney had let them down,” he said.