Update on St Albans primary School (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Update on St Albans primary School

5:16pm Monday 1st February 2010 in

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A NEW primary school will be built in the district in response to a growing demand for school places, Hertfordshire County Council education chiefs have confirmed.

Richard Thake, portfolio holder for Education and Skills, told the Review that schools must be built in St Albans, Wheathampstead, Harpenden and Watford to solve the huge deficit of school places.

He told the Review last week: "There's been a huge growth in the demand for primary and secondary school places across the county. We now believe that we will be having to build a number of schools across the county and obviously areas such as Wheathampstead, Harpenden, St Albans and Watford are showing huge, huge demand. It's likely that these schools will have to be located in these areas."

Over the next two years the county council will be identifying possible sites for development. However, the unspecified site will be on an area of Green Belt land somewhere in the area of St Albans.

Richard added: "There's frankly insufficient land in the urban areas to build what we are looking for in size.

"We're going to have to look at Green Belt and greenfield developments."

Parents calling for a school in the centre of St Albans where there is a severe shortage of primary places are unlikely to have their wishes granted. Richard said: "We are not aware of any site in central St Albans that's likely to deal with the problem in the long-term."

Meanwhile, an expansion plan for more St Albans primary schools could be agreed, but Richard refused to disclose the schools identified for the scheme.

Mandeville Primary School and Bernards Heath Infants School increased their intake by 30 pupils per year this September with Bernards Heath Primary School increasing its entry from two forms of 30 to three by September 2011, admitting 90 pupils per year instead of 60.

But Lib Dem county councillor for central St Albans Chris White, who also represents Clarence ward, fears the scheme, likely to cost in the region of £100 million, could be a long time coming.

He said: "This is going to cost millions. The council can't sell property any more - they will have to borrow the money.

"They said they would build a new primary school in the summer - some years after I warned it would be necessary. Since then they have done precious little to advance the scheme. We have found no money set aside for it and when we asked where the funding was we got no answer. So don't hold your breath."

Parents became embroiled in a battle with the education authority last year when around 80 children failed to get one of their preferred primary schools. Mary crofts, who spearheaded SABLE (St Albans Battle for Local Education) - a group comprising angry parents of some of the pupils who failed to secure a place at their nearest primary schools - warned a new generation of parents could face a similar fight ahead of September's intake unless the school place shortfall was rapidly resolved.

Ideal sites for a new school in St Albans and surrounding villages have also been sacrificed in favour of housing developments, according to district councillor for Wheathampstead Judy Shardlow.

Plans for 67 new homes on the former Wheathampstead education site was given the go ahead by a planning committee last week, infuriating councillor Shardlow and residents who would have preferred to see a village school built on the land.

Councillor Shardlow said the additional homes would only exacerbate the school allocation crisis in St Albans and the scramble for both secondary and primary places.

She said: "I will be inviting Richard Thake to Wheathampstead to explain to parents of children without a school place why it's sensible to sell off a school site for family housing when there are not enough school places already.

"Not to mention how exactly Mr Thake and the rest of the fools on the hill are going to fix this primary and secondary school place crisis that is now so bad that even the council has to admit it."

Campaigners fighting to free the London Road site from Tesco's clutches have previously suggested it would be the perfect location for a city centre school.

However, Tesco spokesman Nick Gellatly said the company had been in talks with the council over the siting of a new school, but denied there were any plans to locate it in London Road.