Westmorland and Furness Council’s cabinet has agreed to proceed with the latest stage of a proposal to expand the existing school building of Beaconside Church of England Primary School in Penrith increasing student spaces at Beaconside school from 511 to 630 with new class rooms funded by money from housing developments in the area.
The cabinet agreed to proceed to the next stage of the decision-making process regarding the resource provision places, and publish a statutory notice, with a four-week representation period. This will allow interested parties to submit any further views on the proposals.
The expansion of the school, if approved, would be funded by Section 106 funding from housing developers originating from housing developments in Penrith over recent years – provided to ensure sufficient school places are available for growing communities as new housing is built.
Representation made by Clifton Community Council to the cabinet meeting said “The concentration of resources and capacity increases in one school creates a sustainability risk to many local rural schools like Clifton that will have generational impacts as intake increases at one the intake will decrease at others locally as is the case with North Walney Primary School.” In the cabinet meeting held at Barrow Town Hall on Tuesday, Westmorland and Furness Council cabinet approved notice of closure of North Walney Primary School at the end of the current school year in August after student number fell.
Clifton Community Council said “as a council we have been asked for help by the school and it’s PTA on a number of occasions over funding and the schools lack of teaching space and facilities.”
“Please consider the need for a wider impact study on the expansion of Beaconside school and look at the wider benefits of distribution of student intake capacity and funding usage.”
Two neighbouring primary schools in Penrith and their governing bodies are unhappy about the funding being allocated to one school and not distributed equitably across schools in the area. They have expressed concerns regarding the impact increasing the places at one school may have upon the other schools. Representation was also made that the proposal going forward for consultation should have been agreed between all the schools.
Some residents of Penrith including the Town Council representatives, are unhappy that a new school is not being built in Penrith.
Westmorland and Furness Council officers have said “While mindful of the strength of feeling generated by the proposal and noting the comments received as part of the consultation, as a local authority we are confident there would be no detriment to neighbouring schools and progressing with this proposal would not only be in the best interests of children and young people in the area but also provides most benefit from the use of funding available.”
Cllr Sue Sanderson, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Educations and Skills at Westmorland and Furness Council, said: “It is really important we take the opportunity to utilise the available funding to the benefit of children and young people in Penrith, and ensure that for years to come we have sufficient school places including resource provision.
“I’m really pleased the cabinet have approved the publication of a statutory notice on these proposals and set out their intention to proceed to the next stage of the process.”
In accordance with the statutory process, a notice will be published on Westmorland and Furness Council’s website on the 5th February 2024. Interested parties will then be able to view the notice and the full statutory proposal and will have until 3 March 2024 to respond wit any comments or views.
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