Decision details

(Time: 2.49pm to 3.03pm)

At its meeting on 20 June 2007, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet considered three options to meet future demand for secondary school places in Wantage/Grove and the surrounding villages. The options were:

(a)       Two schools, each with 1,250 pupils;

(b)       One school on two sites with 2,500 pupils; and

(c)        A new 600 place 11-16 school for Grove and retain King Alfred’s as existing.

The County Council’s Cabinet had agreed to proceed with option C to provide a new 600 place 11-16 school for Grove and retain King Alfred’s Sports and Community College in Wantage under the existing arrangement.  The Cabinet also authorised County Council officers to complete negotiations with developers to secure a sufficient and appropriate site to meet the needs of the selected option and any possible future expansion and report back on the potential implications in terms of timeline and cost of the preferred option.  The County Council's Scrutiny Committee had called this item in for consideration. 

The Executive noted that Councillor Jerry Patterson, in his capacity as Leader of the Council, had made a statement to the County Council’s Scrutiny Committee.  However, he had not been given sufficient time to complete his prepared statement and therefore tabled it at the Executive’s meeting, seeking approval to submit a copy to the County Council’s Cabinet.  Members agreed with this suggestion. 

Councillor Zoë Patrick and Jim Moley had both requested to address the Executive on this subject.  At the invitation of the Chair they did so.  Councillor Patrick had reservations about the County Council Cabinet’s decision and as a County Council Scrutiny Committee Member, had requested that it was called-in for review.  She believed that the choice of a small school for Grove would be insufficient for the development that was planned to take place.  However, she was slightly more reassured at the County Council’s Scrutiny Committee meeting when she was told that there was potential to expand the school in the future.  She was also told that the school would be delivered by 2012, in time for the first housing development on the airfield site.  She considered it imperative that sufficient land was allocated for the school at the outset.  The school would also need to be a community focal point for Grove.  She had urged the County Council’s Cabinet to deliver these promises and negotiate a firm delivery plan to provide the necessary services on time. 

Councillor Moley welcomed the County Council Cabinet’s decision for a separate school in Grove, with an undertaking to expand it to provide a sixth form in due course.  He urged the Vale to use whatever planning powers it could to secure a viable secondary school with sixth form facilities. 

The Chair thanked Councillors Patrick and Moley for their contributions and asked that their statements were also submitted to the County Council’s Cabinet for consideration. 

The Executive noted that, as planning authority, the Council would determine the details of the Section 106 Agreement, prescribing the building of the school but not its management arrangements.  It was noted that a site had already been identified in the adopted Local Plan.  Members considered that the County Council should be reminded of the Council’s powers as the local planning authority.  It was noted that Grove was already an item on the agenda for regular meetings between Leaders and Chief Executive’s of the two Councils

RESOLVED

that a full copy of the Leader’s statement to the County Council’s Scrutiny Committee on school provision in Grove be sent to the County Council’s Cabinet for consideration, requesting a written response.