News story
5th July 2001
MP To Step Up Campaign Over Bradley Stoke Secondary
School
Following his Westminster debate on the subject,
Northavon MP Steve Webb has now vowed to step up the
fight to secure a secondary school for Bradley Stoke. On
Wednesday (4th July) Steve Webb spoke out about the
absurdity of a system which allows a housing development
of over 9,000 homes to be built up without a secondary
school being built. He explained how Government rules
about “excess” school places elsewhere in the
authority had initially delayed plans, whilst new
Government rules on the funding of school building were
still making it difficult for the Council to move ahead
quickly. Responding to the debate, newly-appointed
schools minister Stephen Timms MP said that councils were
not allowed to build new schools when there were surplus
school places within a three mile radius, but recognised
that this was no longer the case in Bradley Stoke. He
stressed the Government’s support for private
finance schemes where the private sector builds or
maintains schools on a contract to local authorities.
However, Steve Webb pointed out that Councils cannot
necessarily afford to pay the prices charged by the
private sector for these services, especially where a
Council receives as little money per child as South
Gloucestershire. The Minister did however agree that his
officials would receive a delegation of local MPs,
councillors and council officials from South
Gloucestershire in order to explore matters further and
to see if there was any way of making more rapid
progress.
Commenting after the debate, Steve Webb said:
“It will rightly strike most people as absurd that a
large private housing estate can be built without
providing secondary education within that new community.
It is vital that real progress is made as quickly as
possible on getting a secondary school for Bradley Stoke.
I hope that we can arrange a meeting with officials at
the Department for Education at the earliest opportunity
in order to see how best this can be achieved. Government
rules have for too long prevented the building of a
secondary school in Bradley Stoke, and local people have
rightly had enough of waiting”.
*** ENDS ***
|