Knapper's Outrage At Birches Head Proposals.
08 Mar 2010
Berryhill and Hanley East City Councillor Adrian Knapper is shocked and outraged to read within Friday nights Sentinel that the Conservative/Independent Liberal Democrat Alliance that now runs Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to expand Birches Head School by an extra 300 pupils when residents within the Bucknall area want a new School at the Mitchell site.
The Local Authority aim to invest £3.1 million extra into Birches Head High School that their own officers from the City Council have admitted was built prematurely under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme in an outlined area rather than in the centre of the community that it serves.
These additional spaces will be created at the wrong location with out any consultation with members of the public and represent a major change to the BSF by the Local Authority who have always stated that their was not enough pupil numbers to accommodate extra class room space within this multi-million pound investment by the Government into Schools.
Councillor Adrian Knapper say’s:
“Now that it clear that this area of the City has the demand for more Educational Space at Secondary School level in the future, the City Council must do the right thing and build Schools in the best location to serve communities.”
With recent news that Primary School are full to capacity and extra temporary class room space is needed to accommodate growing numbers of pupils, Councillor Adrian Knapper has written to the Chief Executive of Stoke-on-Trent City Council requesting an urgent meeting of Ward Councillors for the area, asking that these plans are put on hold until the New Head of Department for Children & Young People takes office.
It would be far better to review the BSF proposals taking into consideration the increasing numbers of pupils to ensure that the potential to build an extra school at a location within the local community at Bucknall and give consideration to a new School at Longton that has been given approval by the Schools Minister on his recent visit to the City. The £3.1 million would be better invested to refurbish Mitchell High rather than build a School at a location that is out of reach for Children to reasonably walk to School.
A change in policy is required to ensure that Education Facilities meet the requirements of the people of Stoke-on-Trent.
Expanding a school by 300
Expanding a school by 300 pupils seems rather leas costly than building a new school from scratch. It's very easy to point fingers but as he isn't a part of the council coalition then he doesn't know of the underlying reasons which have lead to this decision.
BSF Strategy for change part
BSF Strategy for change part 1 quoted 900 pupils for Birches Head, part 2 quotes 1050.
"With recent news that Primary School are full to capacity and extra temporary class room space is needed to accommodate growing numbers of pupils"
RECENT news - b*ll*cks! Look - we ordinary people knew this years ago - but do we get listened to? No.
Same as now with the high schools. I've done the calculations, using serco's own figures, I've sent the council spreadsheets. It's not actually difficult. Serco's own plans are to provide 13,500 high school places (and the expanded Birches Head is already included in that), but they admit that by 2020 there will be 14,642 pupils. We know that NOW! So no point anyone suddenly 'realising' around 2018 or so we are heading for a shortage of 1,142 high school places.
And where will the shortages be most severe? Well that does take a bit of an assumption that relative demand in different areas stays the same (when it may change a bit) but the result will be (again basing on serco's own figures) ~150 unable to get into Sandon, ~350 unable to get into new St. Peter's and ~500 unable to get into the ironically named '20:20 Discovery', regardless of whether it's on Mitchell or Longton or Adderley Green. And yet our leader and cabinet refuse to do anything about this.
“Now that it clear that this area of the City has the demand for more Educational Space at Secondary School level in the future, the City Council must do the right thing and build Schools in the best location to serve communities.” - Exactly right, except that it isn't NOW - like I say, you can see these things coming but nobody believes you, or at least they want to ignore it.
Cost £m
(Rounded)
Birches Head £3.1
Blurton Academy £19.6
Brownhills Academy £17.3
Haywood £6.5
Holden Lane £8.0
James Brindley Academy £21.8
Discovery Academy £24.3
St Joseph’s College £3.5
St Margaret Ward £10.6
St Peter’s Academy £20.6
St Thomas More £7.7
Thistley Hough £14.9
Trentham £3.9
Abbey Hill £6.3
Aynsley £2.3
Kemball £12.6
Middlehurst £11.9
Trent Vale £4.2
Programme Contingency £23.4
Total £222.5
Nicky Davis - non-party political activist - a firm believer in grass roots democracy and strong local communities.
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