News story

10th September 2004

Local MP Hits Out Over Threats to Village Schools

Northavon MP Steve Webb has sent a strongly worded letter to South Gloucestershire Council protesting against plans to close small village schools in his Northavon constituency. The MP was responding to the Council's "draft School Organisation Plan" for 2004-09 which places question marks over the future of several small village primary schools. With council officials now preparing a briefing for Conservative councillor Sheila Cook, executive member for education on South Gloucestershire Council, Steve Webb has expressed concerns about the consultation process to date and has registered strong support for village schools. This is an issue that he has already raised in Parliament earlier this year.

In his letter the MP sets out a list of arguments in favour of retaining village schools. Steve Webb said: "If the problem they are trying to solve is lots of surplus school places, I don't see how closing small village schools makes much of a dent in the problem, since they don't have many places to begin with. This policy does maximum damage to communities whilst doing little to tackle the problem of surplus
places."

The MP also urges the Council not to jump to conclusions simply based on the number of replies they have received to this consultation in respect of different schools. He said: "I know of some schools who have simply sent one general response because at this stage there is no detail in the plans, whilst others have organised hundreds of letters. The Council needs to be very careful about drawing conclusions from this".

The MP also warned that closing a school permanently means that even if pupil numbers subsequently rise it is lost for ever. He highlights the way in which village schools are at the heart of their communities even for people who do not have children at the school, and urges the Council to think creatively about how school buildings can be used to serve the whole community.

Steve Webb has recently begun a constituency-wide survey of the views of local residents on education issues, and already hundreds of residents have been in touch to register their support for village schools. The MP said he would be sending a full copy of the report on his survey to local education chiefs later in the year.