Decision details

The four week representation period for the statutory notice published on 3rd February 2011 proposing the expansion of Bathampton Primary School ends on 3rd March 2011 and a decision is required to determine the notice

The Cabinet Member agrees that the Statutory Notice for the expansion of Bathampton Primary is approved and the temporary enlargement of the school can be made permanent.

The school was enlarged on a temporary basis in 2008 by the addition of a temporary building to the school site and a condition of the planning permission granted at that time was that the temporary building would either need to be removed or replaced with a permanent structure after three years. Births and pupil numbers in the city of Bath have risen in recent years and pupil forecasts indicate that the additional places created temporarily will continue to be needed in the future and therefore cannot be removed and must be made permanent.

The proposal has the support of the Governing Body of the school who wish to be able to continue to provide this number of places to serve the local community.

The Local Authority considers that the presumption for the expansion of successful and popular schools should apply because the school’s performance is of a consistently high quality, the number of applications for places is high and intake numbers are healthy and the school has an Ofsted rating of ‘Outstanding’.

During the representation period no comments or objections to the proposal were received.

The option to remove the temporary building and for it not to be replaced with permanent so that the school reverts to its original size prior to the temporary enlargement was rejected as the additional places created are projected to be required to accommodate pupils in the future, demand for places at the school continues to be high and making the school revert to its original smaller size would be contrary to the presumption that popular and successful schools should be able to expand.