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Agenda item

School Reorganisation Proposal to Expand Bassaleg School

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the Chief Education Officer who presented the report.

 

The Chief Education Officer informed Cabinet that Bassaleg School was the most subscribed secondary school across Newport and served a large catchment area that continued to grow through new housing developments, regeneration and investment in the local area.

 

The proposal was undertaken in accordance with the Welsh Government School Organisation Code.  As a result of this, a six week period of formal consultation was undertaken between October and November 2020.  As  expected, there was a large volume of correspondence, all of which was referenced in a Consultation Report, published on the Council website and shared with stakeholders in January of this year.

 

Following consideration of the Consultation Report, the Cabinet Member was of the view that the proposal should progress and thus a statutory notice was published in March of this year for the required period of 28 days. This statutory notice period was the point at which stakeholders were able to lodge legal objections to the proposal. Where no objections where lodged, the legislation enabled the Cabinet Member to take the final decision on the proposal. However where objections were received, the legislation required a Local Determination Panel to consider all available evidence in taking the final decision. In this case, two formal objections and two further concerns were lodged and thus Cabinet, acting as the Local Determination Panel, was required to consider the final decision.

 

The various reasons for objection were summarised in the report but also referred to in detail in the accompanying Objection Report. I have noted that the majority of reasons for objection were also raised during the formal consultation period, and were referenced and appropriately responded to within the Consultation Report.

 

The planned investment at Bassaleg School was possible through Band B of the Council’s 21st Century Schools Programme and was therefore jointly funded by the Council and Welsh Government. At present, an amount of £28m was allocated to this project, although it was noted that whilst the tender process was not complete, the latest cost plan suggested that investment of approximately £31m would be required in total. It was entirely possible therefore that the overall Band B programme might need to be reviewed in the coming months when there was more certainty on costs in relation to specific projects.

 

The proposal and the investment would jointly provide a wonderful opportunity to increase and improve facilities for learners in one of our most successful secondary schools, and make this a truly 21st Century learning environment.

 

Decision:

Cabinet approved the school reorganisation proposal “to increase the overall capacity of Bassaleg School from 1747 to 2050 with effect from September 2023”.

 

Supporting documents: