A LONE member of Warrington Borough Council’s executive board has broken ranks to oppose a major review of the town’s primary schools.
Coun Sharon Wilson – who represents Poulton North and is executive member for Customer Services – was making a stand against the proposed closure of one of her local schools, Long Barn Primary.
But the rest of the board approved the review for consultation purposes after executive member for Children’s Services Sheila Woodyatt stressed that no decision had yet been taken and that full consultation would take place with the public.
However, she said the proposals in the review were designed to meet Government criteria.
Warrington stood to receive funding of £44 million from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) over the next 14 years if the criteria was met.
“If we don’t meet the criteria, we won’t get the money,” she said.
Proposals to close Longbarn Primary were first considered five years ago, but the school was saved after a campaign by local parents.
At that time, two nearby schools, Cinnamon Brow CE Primary and Christ Church CE Primary reduced their admissions in the hope it would encourage an increased intake at Longbarn.
But an analysis of schools in the area immediately around Longbarn was still not attracting more pupils. The figures showed that only 33 per cent of the pupils living nearest to the school went to it, while 67 per cent attended other schools.
Coun Wilson challenged the statistics. She said the reductions at the two CE schools had not taken effect until 2007, which meant Longbarn had only had 18 months in which to build up its numbers, compared with the five years implied by the figures.
She also claimed education chiefs were not using the latest, up-to-date figures.
If the proposals are confirmed after public consultation, Longbarn would close in August next year. Another school, Sycamore Lane Primary at Great Sankey would close and be rebuilt on a new site at Chapelford.
A third school, Woolston Primary, would be rebuilt on the same site but with a reduced capacity.
Another nine schools would be affected – two having increased numbers of pupils but the remaining seven having fewer.
This would mean at least 45 per cent of primary schools would have been modernised, in line with Government criteria.
Schools where pupil admissions will be reduced include Sycamore Lane and Woolston, which are to be rebuilt, but also Bruche, Meadowside, Broomfields Junior, The Cobbs Infants, Bewsey Lodge, St Margaret’s CE and Birchwood CE while the schools to increase admissions will be Ravenbank and Christ Church CE.
A number of schools would have no changes to admission numbers but have been identified as priorities for investment. They are Winwick CE, St Joseph’s RC, Great Sankey, Evelyn Street, Oakwood Avenue and Dallam primaries.
Overall, eight per cent of schools will be replaced or taken out of use and the number of surplus places will have been reduced from 13 per cent a year ago to about eight per cent.
School buildings in the worst condition – at Great Sankey, Woolston, Evelyn Street, Bewsey Lodge, Sycamore Lane and The Cobbs – would have been replaced.
