Agenda, decisions and minutes

The requisition was not upheld.

In accordance with Paragraph 17 of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Rules, two members, representing more than one group had signed a requisition calling-in in a decision of Cabinet. On this occasion, councillors Keith Darvill and Gillian Ford had called-in the Cabinet decision of 26 September 2012 relating to primary school expansion in 2012-13.

The decision of Cabinet concerned a report on the proposals for primary school expansions in the borough for 2012-13, owing to a projected shortage of primary school places for September 2013. Based on the report (which was circulated to members of the Committee) made the following decisions:

1.      that the 15 schools listed in Appendix 1 (of the Cabinet Report) for proposed permanent expansion from September 2013 to meet the projected deficit of primary places be expanded;

2.      that the statutory processes be initiated to permanently expand the capacity of eight of those 15 schools by September 2013:  Harold Court Primary; Harold Wood Primary; Pyrgo Priory Primary; St Patrick’s Primary; Rise Park Infant and Junior schools; and Towers Infant and Junior schools;

3.      that the proposal to expand Branfil Primary School from 1 September 2013 be commenced, following the Representation Period which ended on 31 August 2012;

4.      that officers take all necessary steps in order to deliver the expansion programme, including the submission of planning applications;

5.      that the commencement of a tendering process for construction/ refurbishment works at issue of tenders for Harold Court Primary, Harold Wood Primary, Mead Primary, Parsonage Farm Primary, Rise Park Infant and Junior schools, Towers Infant and Junior schools, together with all associated investigations e.g. soil survey, and;

6      that the final allocation of available Capital funding as detailed within the Cabinet report was to be delegated to the Lead Members for Children and Learning and Value, and the Group Directors of Children’s Services and Finance and Commerce.

These decisions were considered necessary to provide sufficient additional primary places to meet the forecast rise in primary pupil numbers projected from September 2013 and beyond. The reasons for proposing specific schools for expansion were given in Appendix 1 of the Cabinet report.

Other options considered

The option of adapting existing accommodation for ‘bulge’ (temporary) classes to respond to the projected deficit of primary places was considered because this would be more affordable and avoid the risk of providing permanent accommodation that might then become surplus in the foreseeable future. 

This option was rejected because of the high level of confidence in the latest pupil forecasts for 2012 that project the birth rate will be sustained at the current high level for the medium term and the corroboration of these projections by the latest ONS forecasts. Given the long term confidence in forecasts the permanent expansion proposals were considered to provide best value for money and the preferred option of schools for responding to expansions. 

In some planning areas there was more than one option for deciding on a school to expand for September 2013 and a clear rationale was given  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.