Conservative-run Derbyshire County Council has slammed the new Labour Government over threats it has recently made to four new proposed schools around the County, which had been agreed and awarded funding by the last Conservative Government.
Labour’s Education Secretary announced in October that nationally, 44 new free school applications approved and awarded by the last Conservative Government had been paused and were now under a review process to see whether they would be scrapped or allowed to continue.
Of the 44, four of the applications were in Derbyshire and these include:
- The Avenue CE Primary, Wingerworth
- Bolsover 6th Form (North Derbyshire University Academy), Bolsover
- Infinity Park Spencer Academy, Nr Sinfin, South Derbyshire
- New House Farm CE Primary, Nr Mickleover, South Derbyshire
Reacting to the news, the County Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, Cllr Alex Dale said:
"I'm extremely disappointed that the new Labour Government has cast such a huge shadow of doubt over these four desperately needed new schools. These projects were all signed off by the last Conservative Government following a rigorous process and a huge amount of evidence gathering to support them.
“The projects also garnered significant support from across the community with the former local Conservative MPs Mark Fletcher, Lee Rowley and Heather Wheeler working really hard to lobby Ministers to back the projects, ably supported by local Conservative Councillors in each of the areas too and with strong local support from residents.
“We also saw a huge amount of work from Council officers, working very closely with multi-academy trusts and school staff to help develop the cases and try to push the projects forward once they were approved by securing sites and working towards planning applications. The fact that these projects are all now under review, with the looming threat of being axed, is a huge slap in the face to everyone who’s been working so hard to make them happen. And to the communities that rightly expect to see the Government honour a commitment to provide them with a local school for their children.
“As these projects are backed up by sound business cases, which demonstrate they are absolutely needed in order to meet the growing local demands for school places over the next few years, if they are axed by the Labour Government, we as the local Council will face a huge challenge in terms of what we do next. Options for expanding other schools are limited. So for some, if not all, of these proposed new schools, we may have to proceed with and fund them ourselves, at a time when everyone knows we are facing massive financial challenges already. In that sense, this whole process could just be a cost-shunting exercise from the Government on to the County Council, at the worst possible time for us.
“At a time when Labour have just delivered the biggest tax-raising Budget since the Second World War, with £40bn of new taxes and £70bn of borrowing for new spending supposedly to invest in vital infrastructure, I cannot understand why four vitally needed new schools in Derbyshire, along 40 others around the country, are now potentially facing the axe. This is clearly more about Labour’s ideological opposition to Free Schools than anything else!
“Alongside several local Conservative Councillors, I’ve already written to the Labour Education Ministers to highlight our concerns and voice our very strong support for all four of these projects and to urge them to re-commit to delivering them as planned. And as a Council, we will be doing everything we can to fight to give these vital proposed new schools a future.”
Pictured: Cllr Charlotte Cupit and former MP, Lee Rowley, near the proposed site for the Avenue School in North East Derbyshire.
