Issue - meetings

That, subject to agreement of the detailed financial information, as set out in the submitted part 2 report, expenditure for the provision of an additional form of entry (150 places in Years 7 - 11) at Rydens Enterprise School be approved.

Reasons for Decisions:

The proposal supports the Authority’s statutory obligation to provide sufficient school places to meet the needs of the population in Elmbridge borough.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by either the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee or the Children and Education Select Committee]

The Cabinet Member for Schools and Learning said that there was an unprecedented demand for school places across Surrey and that an additional 13,000 school places would be required over the next five years. She informed Members that the County Council was continuing to lobby Central Government for additional funding because the Council was facing a potential £125m funding gap.

She said that Rydens was a secondary school and an Academy that was planning to build a new school to replace the existing school on the same site and that outline planning permission for this new build had been approved by Elmbridge Borough Council’s Planning and Regulatory Committee on 18 November 2014. She advised the Cabinet that the Local Authority would be working closely with the school thorough the project to ensure that it obtained value for money for the 150 additional 11-16 places at this school in Hersham to help meet basic need requirements in the Elmbridge area.

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the agreement of the detailed financial information for the school as set out in the submitted Part 2 report, the business case for the provision of an additional one form of entry (150 places in Years 7 to 11, excluding any sixth form expansion), be approved.

Reasons for Decisions:

The proposal supports the Authority’s statutory obligation to provide sufficient school places to meet the needs of the population in Elmbridge borough.