Fix 2: Great Ashby children denied places in local school

2.45.00pm GMT Thu 26th Feb 2009

The newly-built Round Diamond School is already proving too small for Great Ashby. The school was purpose built for the new estate only four years ago but already parents in Serpentine Close, Thirlmere and Windermere Close are being told that the school will not be able to accept their children next year.

Ian Simpson, Liberal Democrat Campaigner for North Herts Rural, was told by county officers that there was no way of increasing the size of the school and that parents on the estate who live furthest away from Round Diamond would have to find other schools with spare spaces. Ian said "This is completely unacceptable and another example of sloppy planning by the County Council. Every 1,000 houses need around thirty school places per year, perhaps a little more when the estate is new and many houses have young families. There are already more than 2,500 houses on the estate but only sixty places in the school. At the very least the school should have been built to allow for future expansion as the estate grew"

This failure comes on top of the lack of a local secondary school for people living in Great Ashby. The nearest school, Nobel, is already filled every year with children who live nearer. They are therefore left to take pot luck with whichever school elsewhere has spaces.

Ian added "There is an understandable feeling on the estate that not enough is being done to cater for their needs and that huge holes are being left in the services provided. Liberal Democrats would bring forward plans to increase the number of school places, review where school provision is needed and halt school closure plans across the county"

Related Link:

Ian Simpson's MyCouncillor site.