Heartsease school closure recommendation slammed

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 4th Jan 2008

Mervyn Scutter

Objections from some 600 Norwich residents, teachers, parents and elected representatives are set to be ignored next week, if a recommendation to hand control of a Norfolk school over to private sponsors is approved.

Following lengthy research and consultation, a report to be considered by decision-makers at Norfolk County Council next Monday finally proposes that the Heartsease High School should be closed to make way for an academy school.

The recommendation for closure comes in spite of a number of strong objections from teachers, local councils, school governors and a petition from 550 Heartsease residents.

Mervyn Scutter, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Children's Services at the County Council, fears that a decision to close Heartsease High in favour of an academy could damage the Council's relationships with local people. He says:

"A decision to approve closure of Heartsease High without further consideration of the concerns expressed by the public would do nothing to improve the bad image of consultation. What is the point of asking people their views only to ignore them?

"Whatever individual political views may be on the issue of academies, it is clear to see that neither Heartsease residents, nor the governors and staff at Heartsease High School want a school that is unaccountable to the local community.

"The Cabinet still has the power to stop the closure of this school. I understand that the promise of £20m of extra funding is a tempting incentive for agreeing to this academy but the Council is here to serve local people, not its own interests. If the Cabinet is as interested as it claims to be in the views of local communities, it should be rethinking this unpopular proposal, not blindly chasing the Government's thirty pieces of silver.

"As local leaders we should be standing up to the Government and arguing for the £20m of public money that is being pumped into this project to be shared across all Norfolk schools. This might go some way to help address the £100m backlog of repairs and routine maintenance which has left 93% of our schools in poor or bad condition, according to the Council's own reports."