Chaos as plan for academy is rejected
Nov 7 2007 by Dave Black, The Journal
A CONTROVERSIAL bid to create Northumberland’s first city academy was in turmoil last night after education chiefs were told to look for a different site for the flagship school.
For the second time in a month, county councillors refused to approve plans to build the secondary element of Blyth’s all-age Bede Academy on the site of the town’s former Ridley High School.
Planning committee members ordered officials to look for alternative sites for the 1,150-student school because of fears over the potential impact of extra traffic and parking problems for people living in surrounding streets.
The decision immediately led to the academy sponsor – Sir Peter Vardy’s Emmanuel Schools Foundation (ESF) – asking councillors to also defer a decision on its bid to build a 630-pupil junior academy next to the town’s South Beach First School.
Yesterday, one local Labour councillor said she hoped the Vardy foundation would now “get the message” and decide to build its academy somewhere other than Blyth.
If that happened, the loss of more than £20m in Government funding for the academy would seriously jeopardise the wider schools reorganisation in Blyth to a two-tier system.
Last night, the ESF said it remains committed to sponsoring an academy in the town, but expressed its disappointment that the plans are now going to be further delayed.
More than 700 neighbours have signed petitions objecting to the two chosen sites for the Bede Academy, claiming the new schools will worsen existing traffic congestion, indiscriminate parking and problems with access to driveways on local streets.
Yesterday, the two joint ESF/county applications for the academy sites were recommended for approval by planning officers, but councillors said they remained unhappy about the implications for local residents.
Coun Deirdre Campbell, the ward county councillor for the area, said: “I am delighted this has been deferred and the applicants asked to look for an alternative site to the old Ridley High. The local people don’t want an academy there and it is time the county council listened to them.
“The extra traffic would be horrendous on streets which were never designed to cope with it. I hope Mr Vardy now gets the message and looks elsewhere to build his academy, because we don’t need one in Blyth.”
ESF project director David Vardy said: “We respectfully asked the committee to focus on the opportunities for the young people of Blyth that the all-age academy proposal represents. The children deserve the very best education in the area where they live, and we are disappointed that deferral might delay this opportunity.”
ESF spokeswoman Sarah French said it was now up to county council officers to look for an alternative site for the secondary academy. However, they have already carried out an in-depth analysis and concluded there aren’t any alternatives.
Last night, a county council spokeswoman said: “The applicants requested that consideration of an application for the primary academy be deferred so that both applications could be considered together at a subsequent meeting.’’
