September 9: Did KCCget its sums wrong over school closures?
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DID KCC get its sums wrong when it
embarked on a massively controversial programme of primary school
closures and mergers in 2006?
It seems the authority believes
it could have gone too far in its drive to tackle what at the time
it said was a plummeting birth rate which meant that if it did
nothing there could be 18,000 spare places by
2010.
How
primary shortage is looming>>>
Now it seems that far from
having too many empty desks, there is going to be a squeeze on
places and a shortage in at least four districts.
How did it get things wrong? The
authority has emphasised that projections of places needed is an
inexact science but that does hardly explain how, in the space of
three years, we have gone from a situation where KCC was claiming
there would be thousands of spare places across 400+primaries to
one where between them there could be just 108
spare for the 16,500 children expected to begin school next
September.
Education chiefs were warned by
many campaigners and opponents of its plans at the time that it
could be creating a hostage to fortune during a fairly brutal
period that caused a great deal of anguish for parents and
children.
But KCC ploughed ahead in the
teeth of these warnings and fierce resistance in some quarters,
leaving some pretty scarred parents, teachers and children in its
wake.
Maybe it will proceed more
cautiously next time. I won't hold my breath.
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We only know this, incidentally,
because County Hall has finally capitulated to a Freedom of
Information request we lodged last year and released a
report that addressed the issue and contains the authority’s
predictions.
The report was initially
withheld on the grounds that its release would be
"prejudicial to the effective conduct of public
affairs" - which it self-evidently was not.
After an appeal to the
Information Commissioner, the authority finally relented this week
and released the report. I suspect it knew that if our complaint
was fully investigated, its argument would be thrown out and it had
no grounds for not disclosing it.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What will succeed the much reviled South East England
Development Agency? The government has invited bids for
Local Enterprise Partnerships to steer the
regeneration of areas.
It seems there might be a bit of a falling out between
Medway council and KCC over the best way forward.
KCC is teaming up with Essex county council while
Medway has submitted a bid in partnership with
some west Kent councils. Meanwhile Bexley is
hitching up with Dartford and Gravesham.
We gather there was a rather frosty meeting between the Medway
council and KCC leaders at County Hall on Monday at which this was
discussed. I hear KCC is not awfully happy about a rival bid being
submitted by its neighbour.
It'll be interesting to see which one Eric Pickles will
back.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Some good news on that money of ours stuck in Icelandic
banks.
KCC reports rather discretely that it has had a further
£1.5m back, bringing the grand total recovered to
£7.5m. Only another £42.5m to go then.
Thursday, September 09 2010
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