Issue - meetings

To approve the Business Case for the expansion of St Francis Catholic Primary School from a 1.5 form of entry primary (315 places) to a 2 form of entry primary (420 places) creating 105 additional places in Caterham to help meet the basic need requirements in the Caterham area from September 2016.

N.B. An annex containing exempt information is contained in Part 2 of the agenda – item 16.

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

That, subject to the agreement of the detailed financial information for the expansion as set out in the submitted Part 2 report, the business case for the provision of an additional 0.5 Form of Entry (105 places) primary places in Caterham be approved.

Reasons for Decision:

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

[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 introduced the report, saying that this was the first of three school expansions on today’s agenda, which would create an additional 400 primary school places in Surrey. She said that the Local Authority had a statutory obligation to provide sufficient school places to meet the needs of the population and there was also a demonstrable need to provide more catholic places in this area.

She referred to the Ofsted judgement of June 2014 for this school but said that she was satisfied that effective action to address the areas requiring improvement was underway.

The Leader of the Council expressed concern about the access road to the school and the proposed mitigating measures which has also been discussed at a recent Tandridge Local Committee meeting. He asked the Director of Legal and Democratic Services to clarify ownership of this access loop road.

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the agreement of the detailed financial information for the expansion as set out in the submitted Part 2 report, the business case for the provision of an additional 0.5 Form of Entry (105 places) primary places in Caterham be approved.

Reasons for Decision:

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