Issue - meetings

Seek approval to publish statutory notices proposing the expansion of Bathampton Primary, Castle Primary, Paulton Infant, Paulton Junior, Peasedown St John Primary and Weston All Saints CofE Primary schools to create additional pupil places

Councillor John Bull in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 7 and on the Council's website] appealed to the Cabinet to ensure that every child in Paulton would have a place at the primary school; and that the on-going road safety problems would be addressed by bringing forward anticipated funding to implement a traffic management scheme near the schools.

Councillor Liz Hardman in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 8 and on the Council's website] asked the Cabinet to ensure that effective road safety and traffic management schemes would be in place before any expansion of Paulton school; to ensure that all Paulton children would have a place at a school in Paulton; and that funding for the expansion scheme would be maximised, whatever approach was adopted.

Rachel Rayner (Paulton Resident) in a statement said that there were road safety issues at Paulton school which must be addressed before expansion was considered; that the school facilities would be inadequate to support a 50% increase in children; and that she felt the consultation had been inadequate, particularly since section 9 of the report did not even mention the option of building a new school on another site.

Mich Moore (Paulton Schools Expansion Action Group) in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 9 and on the Council's website] disagreed with the contention made in the report that the existing site of Paulton Schools would lend itself to expansion.  She felt that road safety issues in particular made the plans inadequate for the needs of local children.  She appealed to Cabinet to direct resources towards building a new building on a new site which would provide a sustainable solution for the village.

Louise Bray (Chair, Church Valley Schools Federation) in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 10 and on the Council's website] asked the Cabinet to give an assurance that the Education and Inspections Act 2006 would be upheld, particularly in the matter of keeping village schools open, by protecting the rural schools in the area.

Councillor Dine Romero thanked the parents and head teacher of Paulton Infants School for meeting with her recently.  She said that the main issues of concern were planning, transport and road safety and observed that the planning application had been withdrawn in order to address these issues.  She assured Councillors Bull and Harman that schooling would be provided in Paulton for all Paulton children whose parents wished that.  There were some reservations about new build, because the existing policy was that new build should be for a minimum of 2-form entry but a new build in Paulton could barely be single-form entry and would cost about £3M.  She assured parents however that the s.106 funds would be fully used to improve the schools in Paulton.

Councillor Romero referred to the complaints  ...  view the full minutes text for item 156