Plan for extra Brighton and Hove primary school places thwarted

Labour and Conservative councillors voted together to thwart plans to force a popular Brighton primary school to take more children.

They said that Stanford Infant School was already overcrowded and that parents, governors and neighbours opposed the proposal.

They added that more effort should be made to persuade the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to make some of the land at the neighbouring Highcroft Drill Hall available.

Councillor Ruth Buckley, a member of the ruling Green group, said: “This is all just showmanship and this is the part of politics I really don’t agree with.

“I’m really quite angry you’ve turned this into a political football.

“The 30 children who would have benefited from this expansion plan will now have to get on two buses to go across town.”

She said that in Port Hall Road, Brighton, “on one side they can get into Stanford – on the other side they can’t”.

Councillor Anne Pissaridou, a Labour member, and Councillor Andrew Wealls, a Conservative, worked together to defeat the Stanford Infant School expansion proposal.

At a meeting of the Brighton and Hove City Council Children and Young People Committee they insisted that the Greens heed the results of a consultation.

It found that out of 192 responses, just 22 were in favour of expanding the school from three to four forms of entry while 162 were against and 8 were undecided.

The main reasons for not supporting the proposal were

• A lack of space on the school site both inside and outside
• Road safety implications
• It would be detrimental to the wellbeing of staff and pupils
• The consultation process and the proposal have been rushed
• The disruption that would be caused by building works
• Concern over what happens when the pupils move to junior school
• The undesirability of prefabricated huts

One parent, Sophie Lewis, of Chanctonbury Road, Hove, presented a petition with more than 600 signatures opposing the expansion proposal.

She said: “The need for additional school places (in Brighton and Hove) is undeniable and we do have enormous sympathy for anyone looking for a school place at the moment.”

She said that further expansion at Stanford Infant School would be “hugely damaging to the sense of community” at the school and its ethos.

She added: “Plans for the infants would have to be linked to plans for the juniors.”

Citing problems when Balfour Infant School grew but Balfour Junior didn’t, she said: “Let’s not repeat that mistake.”

She said that we lived in a country that had set a minimum standard for the amount of space needed for cattle but not for children.

“Expanding popular schools with space is one thing but there has to be a better solution than overcrowding a school that is already short of space.”

The committee chairman Councillor Sue Shanks, a member of the Green administration, said that an expansion of Stanford Infant School would be linked to an expansion of Stanford Junior School.

She was reluctant to accept the possibility of Cottesmore adding a form of entry. She said: “Cottesmore is a Catholic school and not everyone wants to go to a faith school.”

She said that councils no longer had the power to open new schools themselves so the administration was trying to enlarge already popular schools.

But Councillor Wealls urged her and her party to work with free school and academy providers as this would unlock government funds.

The committee, which met at Hove Town Hall, was told that 2,800 applications were expected for a Reception Year primary school place in Brighton and Hove in September. There were likely to 2,910 places available.

Gillian Churchill, head of capital strategy at the council, said: “Those 110 spare spaces are not all in the places parents want to send their children to school.”

A proposal to expand Aldrington Church of England Primary School in Hove was accepted by the committee.

The council will make a final decision on Thursday 28 March, three weeks before parents are told where their children should go to school.

The deadline for primary, infant and junior school applications is tomorrow (Tuesday 15 January) at 3pm.

Councillor Pissaridou said that she had sympathy for those parents who were trying to find a school place close to their home.

But she said: “An overcrowded school or an overcrowded playground is not in the interests of any child.”

Councillors Wealls said that there was quite considerable MoD land available at Highcroft.

Councillor Jeane Lepper, a Labour member, said that she had had experience in dealing with the MoD over Preston barracks and cautioned: “They don’t exactly move swiftly.”

She added: “I was left quite horrified by this proposal. I was also left quite horrified that negotiations hadn’t started yet with the junior school.”

She recounted the misery faced by parents and children when Balfour Infant School expanded before an agreement could be reached with Balfour Junior School.

The junior school didn’t expand and “20 to 25 children each year couldn’t transfer from the infant school to the junior school” with their friends and neighbours.

She said: “Everyone swore that mess wouldn’t be allowed to happen again.

“But they’ve (Stanford Junior School) got a loaded gun to their head really.”

She said that any consultation would be a sham and added: “The reason this dog’s breakfast has happened is because the (Green) administration hasn’t done anything in the two years that it’s had.

“Stanford Infant School shouldn’t be punished for this.”

Councillor Stephanie Powell, a Green, said: “What would Labour be doing if they were in administration? They’d be closing schools like Comart.”

Councillors Wealls said that putting the proposed expansion of Stanford Infant School on hold bought time for talks with the MoD and the chance to come up with a better proposal.

He said: “Negotiation with the MoD is the only way to ensure there is enough space.”

He also said that his party would have gone out and talked to free schools as the government would provide funds to set up free schools and academies.

Councillor Wealls worked with the project team behind the only free school to have opened so far in Brighton and Hove – the Bilingual Primary School.