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Tempers flare as the future of Theale Primary School is discussed




Parish council told to relinquish land in order to build new primary school

THEALE Parish Council has been told it needs to give up five acres of its land – or risk the village not getting the replacement primary school it ‘urgently needs’.

The current primary school, located in Church Street, has been oversubscribed for a number of years, with some children from the village unable to secure a place.

West Berkshire Council has secured £7m in funding from the Department for Education and evaluated 11 potential sites for the new school, but say that only one of them – the North Street playing fields – is suitable and financially viable.

The land is owned by the Englefield Estate, but leased to Theale Parish Council until 2029, which means that the parish council must agree to relinquish five acres of the 13.5-acre site to West Berkshire Council before any application can be submitted.

The Englefield Estate says it is happy to sell the land to West Berkshire Council to enable a school to be built, but says the parish council, as leaseholder, must agree to release it first.

However at an extraordinary meeting of the parish council on Monday, councillors were unable to reach an agreement on whether it was prepared to give up the land, which is popular with dog walkers and used by local sports teams.

They say they need more time to discuss the proposal in further detail and would let residents know the decision when it was made.

During the meeting, the school’s headteacher, Catherine Morley, told councillors she was anxious that there were no further delays.

She said: “The children are already cramped.

“We’ve already lost our art classroom to cope with the extra numbers and we will have to lose our ICT room too unless something is done.”

She added that it would be ‘almost impossible’ for the school to maintain its current ‘outstanding’ rating from Ofsted if a replacement school was not built.

During the meeting, the parish council claimed that the district council had kept it in the dark about which were the preferred sites.

However, programme manager at West Berkshire Council, Bill Bagnell, who attended the meeting, said: “Clearly there has been a grave misunderstanding between the parish council and the district council.

“A year ago when we mentioned this particular site we did not get the impression it would be a problem.

“Obviously it is a problem. If we realised that perhaps things would have been done differently

“I’m prepared to admit that, but I wonder who else will?

“We only found out six weeks ago that we had the funding from the Department for Education for the school.

“The parish council will legally retain control of the remaining eight-and-a-half acres. Which we are asking for you to relinquish the five acres in order to build the school.

“I can tell you we will absolutely not be able to deliver a school on any other site.”

In a statement this week, Ian Pearson, head of education at West Berkshire Council said: “The need for a new school is urgent.

“With the present numbers of village children reaching school age by September 2017, the existing site will become wholly unmanageable.

“The school and the council are determined not to miss this opportunity which will future proof present standards of education in Theale for many generations to come.”



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