Sutton's school place crisis is worsening, with the date for the first site being delayed until 2019.
Almost 2 years ago, in November 2014, Cllr Mathys, Chair of the Education Committee, made the following statement to Council in response to a public question from Paul Scully MP:
"Thank you Mr Mayor. Good evening Mr Scully, thank you for your question. As you may well be aware land is at a premium in Sutton and so there are few sites which could contain a large secondary school. The Council has conducted a thorough search throughout the borough and considered many possibilities. But after looking at the amount of land required and planning restrictions, two sites have been offered to the Children and Young People Learning Directorate. You may be aware that by 2019 we shall need two new secondary schools, each with eight forms of entry. So I am very pleased this evening to be able to confirm that as stated in our press release today, that the two sites being considered are firstly in Belmont at the former Sutton Hospital site, and secondly at the all weather pitch adjacent to the tennis centre which is land situated in Rose Hill. We will be conducting feasibility studies on both these sites and by the end of January 2015 we hope to be in a position to say which of these sites will be ready first, and whichever one that is we will proceed with plans for a school to be opened in 2017 and the other site will be used for the second school in 2019."
That is a very clear commitment in principle, nearly two years ago. The accompanying press release referred to these two sites as the "preferred sites".
So where is the school in Belmont, which was supposed to open in September 2017? It's now expected in February 2019, and still we have not obtained planning permission or put a spade in the ground. Providence granted us a whole extra year, as the places now aren't needed until September 2018, yet still we've contrived to be 6 months behind. This means that in 2 years, we have made 6 months of progress.
And where is the school in Rose Hill, which was supposed to open in September 2019? It was torpedoed by the administration in September 2015. One year on from that shameful debacle we are still rubbing our chins and thoughtfully pondering alternatives. How nice.
From the Belmont site acquisition in March 2015 we are now projecting 4 years to the school opening in February 2019, assuming zero delays in planning or construction. Optimistically assuming the Council agrees the second secondary school site before Christmas and acquire land in spring 2017: we can't realistically assume it will open earlier than spring 2021. This is a problem, given the pupil place planning numbers for year 7 entry in September 2019 and September 2020.
In September 2018 we will be 163 school places short (the Belmont school would provide 180 places). Then in September 2019 we're 334 places short, and then September 2020 we're 454 places short. If the Council opened a 10 forms of entry school on Rose Hill, that would be an extra 300 places per year, meaning they've enough places for 2020. Instead, in a highly political move, they pulled the rug out from under the feet of the Greenshaw Learning Trust.
Now, even if the first school is delivered on time in early 2019, we will go into September 2019 short by about 154 places, and then we go into September 2020 short by 274 places, even with the first new school open. Literally hundreds of children will have no school to go to. They will have to be accomodated in "part completed" school builds, i.e. on a building site. Or they will have to be accomodated in "temporary accommodation", i.e. portable cabins.
Children taking the big step-up to Secondary School will be stuck without a proper building to learn in until well into their school career.
The real disappointment is that this crisis was avoidable if the Council followed through on its statement in November 2014 and got on with building a school at Rose Hill.