Greens disappointed at Council Decision on Wisewood/Myers Grove Merger

25th July 2007

At the Full Council meeting, the Greens joined forces with the Lib Dems to try to get funding to retain both community schools, but were defeated by the combined forces of the Labour group plus the one Conservative and one Independent councillor.

Green Party Cllr Jillian Creasy said, “We believe our proposal was feasible and would have attracted BSF funding if the officers had made a better case. We are bitterly disappointed that the Labour group, backed by Tory Cllr Anne Smith and Independent Cllr Martin Davies were ready to take “no” for an answer. The problem will not go away – if we can’t sort out a way for local schools with falling rolls to share resources, there will be more closures over the next few years. Federations and refurbishments could provide an imaginative, economic and environmentally friendly way forward, but Labour was not ready to listen to anyone else’s ideas.”

The Greens had offered a way out of the deadlock over the fate of Myers Grove and Wisewood School by suggesting that they form a “federation”.
The amendment they put forward at today’s Council meeting also proposed that Myers Grove should be rebuilt and Wisewood refurbished, with the new 14-19 Enterprise centre to be built on the Wood Lane site.

Green Party Cllr Jillian Creasy said, “We know the city has a problem with falling rolls and accept that the city needs money from the Building Schools for the Future fund. A federation would have meant that the two schools could both remain open on their present sites, but share management, teachers, support staff, specialist facilities and curricular options. The cost of rebuilding Myers Grove and refurbishing Wisewood would be covered by the £20m available from BFS for a single site school. The two schools would end up with a combined capacity of 1200, which would get rid of 600 surplus places in the north of the city.

“We also wanted Council officers to look at how the city could fund more "small schools" ( with less than 900 places) and multi-campus schools, without making unfair demands on the budgets of larger schools. This would help the Council meet the BSF requirements to provide parent choice, improve education and make schools "relevant and accessible to local communities."

ENDS

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