Agenda item

[NOTE: Councillor D. Price had earlier declared an interest in this item.]

The Committee was reminded that a formal consultation exercise was undertaken from 6^th November, 2017 to 17^th December, 2017 on the proposal to increase the capacity of Gorslas Community Primary School from 110 to 210.  The results of the consultation exercise were presented to the Committee for consideration 25^th January.

On 26^th February, 2018 approval was granted by the Executive Board for the publication of a Statutory Notice.  The Notice was published on 5^th March, 2018 and provided objectors with 28 days in which to forward their objections in writing to the Council.  Following the end of this period on 1^st April, 2018, no objections were received.

The Committee was being asked to consider whether or not the proposal, as laid out in the Statutory Notice, should be implemented.

It was noted that should the County Council agree to implement the proposal, the capacity of Gorslas Primary School will increase from 110 to 210 from 1^st September, 2019 when occupation of the new school building is proposed.

The following questions/observations were raised on the report:-

·       Reference was made to Estyn’s query regarding the impact the proposal will have on neighbouring schools and officers were asked how confident they are that the other schools in the area will not be impacted negatively by the proposal.  The Modernisation Services Manager explained that there are a large number of children living in Gorslas who currently attend other schools.  He added that there are also a lot of housing developments being built in Gorslas at the moment;

·       In response to a question regarding how confident officers are that the modelling is robust, the Modernisation Services Manager stated that officers are very confident in the robustness of the figures.  The level of demand is very, very acute in the village, with two mobile classrooms installed over recent years, and that demand will be met;

·       Asked if there is scope to expand the school if it is a success and the figure of 210 is reached sooner than expected, the Modernisation Services Manager stated that, in his opinion, there is probably not much scope to invest further on that site.  Moving forward, a 210 pupil school will be created in Gorslas and a review will be undertaken into the surrounding schools.  If it is then deemed that further investment is required in that area then consideration will be given to all the schools in that area;

·       Reference was made to the statement in the report that the Council will monitor the effects of the proposal on neighbouring schools and should the proposal have any detrimental effects on provision, then appropriate action will be considered and officers were asked to expand on this.  The Modernisation Services Manager explained that this would involve a review of other schools in the area and the option to round down the admission number for the new school if so required;

·       Asked whether officers have looked at the impact of car parking and drop off zones, the Committee was advised that this was done as part of the consultation process.  Less parking and more drop off zones were originally proposed, however, following the consultation process, additional parking has been added to address the concerns raised.

RESOLVED to recommend to the Executive Board that the proposal to increase the capacity of Gorslas Community Primary School from 110 to 210, as laid out in the Statutory Notice, be implemented.