Westmorland and Furness Council launched a consultation in October on increasing student spaces at Beaconside school from 511 to 630 with new class rooms funded by money from housing developments in the area.
On Tuesday 23rd January at a meeting in Barrow in Furness the Westmorland and Furness Cabinet are set to approve on officer recommendations the plans to expand the school despite a number of comments opposed to the plans including from Penrith Town Council.
The Council’s consultation on this proposal ran from 3 October 2023 until 31 October 2023. The online consultation process received 175 responses from a variety of stakeholders including: governors, staff, parents and carers, (both from Beaconside and neighbouring schools) and other local residents.
• 12% of all responses were positive about the proposal for Beaconside CE Primary School.
• 39% expressed concerns about how the proposal may adversely affect neighbouring local schools.
• 18% of respondents raised concerns about the practical issues that an expansion may produce i.e. traffic growth, parking problems.
• 26% of the responses could be categorised as requesting a new school be constructed.
• 9% of respondents expressed concern that the enlargement of the school may cause a reduction in the quality of the education on offer.
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. Seeking clarity regarding the future of the resource provision at North Lakes.
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.”
It has emerged that Westmorland and Furness Council has a pot of funding relating to housing developments that the Council is in receipt of via seven s106 agreements and totals £3,540,012. This includes £1,979,303 which spending must be committed to by the end of March 2024 and if not allocated then the council could be made to return the unspent money to developers.
The council has said that the work at Beaconside School would see the new school capacity ready to take student from September 2026.
At the same meeting in Barrow on Tuesday the Westmorland and Furness council leadership will be approving the closure notice of a primary school in the South of the district with capacity for 161 primary students due to a fall in numbers to just 24.
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