Decision details

The Cabinet Member for Property & Waste considered a petition requesting the council reconsider its decision to move Priory School to Woodhatch Place.  The full petition text and formal response were published as a supplement to the agenda.

Dr Sophia Mitchell presented the petition and highlighted three main concerns:

·         The detrimental impact of travelling on a dangerous A road and the resultant air pollution on both pupils and residents

·         Other detrimental impacts on residents around Woodhatch including parking, congestion, pollution and decreased economic productivity

·         The effect of increased carbon emissions that goes against council policy.

She went on to speak about the current site of the school and stated that she wanted to work constructively with the council to keep the school on its present site.

Catherine Baart spoke as the divisional Member and raised several issues that had not already been raised.  She stated the impact on daily lives of the community around the site that this decision would bring and asked for more transparency on the reasons for moving the school to this site, specifically:-

·         Why were the site appraisals not available to the public now and why did they have to wait until the planning committee?  This gave the impression that the council were withholding information.

·         Although the site appraisal had already been done the council were still collecting data around traffic etcetera and asked how this further information collected would be fed into the site appraisal?

·         The Angel junction did not have a pedestrian crossing and would be some years before it did have one so therefore had the extra funding needed for infrastructure to be put in place for this move been taken into account?

·         Had there been serious discussions with the DfE about extending Holmesdale School and the two feeder schools to turn them into primary schools?  If so, those discussions should be made known to aid transparency.

The Cabinet Member for Property & Waste sympathised with residents that the school could not stay on its present site.  She explained that communications regarding expansion of schools came under the remit of the Education Team and not property.  Site appraisal and traffic assessments would accompany the planning application.  It was confirmed by the Contracts Manager that the site appraisal could not be released early and before statutory consultees for planning purposes.  The information needed to be as up to date as possible for the planning decision and therefore it was likely to change.

The Cabinet Member for Property & Waste confirmed that statutory consultation would take place from 9^th May and that residents would be invited to submit their concerns as part of that consultation.  This would be followed by submission of the planning papers for committee decision in June.