Decision details
Peasedown St John Primary Basic Need Expansion
Decision Maker: Corporate Director (People)
Decision status: Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
Purpose:
The Council retains the legal responsibility
for pupil place planning and has a statutory duty (under section 14
of the Education Act 1996) to provide sufficient school places in
its area. In order to achieve this the Council's priority is to
ensure there is sufficient provision of school places in the right
areas to meet need. These places can be delivered within community,
academy, free school, voluntary controlled and voluntary aided
schools.
Basic Need (BN) grant is allocated to the Council from the
Department for Education (DfE) on an annual basis. The funding is
allocated to support the provision of sufficient school places and
the statutory duty of the Council.
The strategic requirement is to expand Peasedown St John Primary
(PSJ) to take a further 105 pupils. The number on roll will
increase from 525 to 630. The school expansion is required due to
population growth and housing development in the area. PSJ is an
academy and part of the Dragonfly Trust.
The capital project to expand the school will provide the school
with the accommodation it needs to operate as a 630 place primary
serving the local community.
Failure to provide sufficient places in the right areas will result
in the Council failing in its statutory duty; parents and children
being required to travel out of their locality to attend another
school; increased transport (revenue) costs and schools being
unable to take local children.
Decision:
To fully approve capital amounting to
£2,831,000 from the provisional capital programme item in the
2018-19 Council Budget Report (Annex 5(i)). Unallocated Schools
Basic Need Grant and £200,000 Community Infrastructure Levy
(CIL) provisionally approved to support the expansion of Peasedown
St John Primary School.
Alternative options considered:
None. PSJ is required to expand due to
population growth and local housing development in the area and is
the only primary school for children in Peasedown St John. Failure
to provide sufficient places in Peasedown St John could result in
the Council failing in its statutory duty; parents and children
being required to travel out of their locality to attend another
school; increased transport (revenue) costs and schools being
unable to take local children.
Publication date: 22/02/2019
Date of decision: 20/02/2019