Bucks County Council - our education authority
The people responsible for our struggling middle school and lack of interest with respect to a land swop deal with the Holy Cross.
Although it is Chiltern District Council’s responsibility to ensure that education is provided for in the Draft Core Strategy, it is Bucks County Council’s responsibility to act upon their requests, maintaining our schools and apportioning funds where necessary. It has become clear that Chiltern District Council and Bucks County Council have for some time been embroiled in a childish standoff which sees no co-operation from either party.
Consequently Chiltern DC have not contacted BucksCC to ask for their help in solving the dire state of our middle school and despite many, many calls from our Parish Council, SENSE and concerned villagers, Bucks CC refuse to investigate any possibility of moving the middle school to the Holy Cross site, the only possible site for a new school.
The problem arose when Carol Castle, head of planning at Chiltern DC, decided to allocate the Holy Cross Convent as a ‘strategic housing site’ declaring that the land was ‘no longer educational’. This is nonsense because, according to government papers, existing laws are still in force until a Core Strategy is approved, existing Chiltern District Council policy states that ‘Within built-up areas excluded from the Green Belt, the council will not allow any development which results in the loss of the community service on the site in question’. This means that the Holy Cross cannot be used for residential development where it can be proved that an educational need is required.
Marion Clayton the Bucks Cabinet Minister for Achievement, Learning and Skills at Bucks County Council, refuses to involve herself in any talks or investigation to make a land swop deal as she keeps saying that the land has a residential value and Bucks CC does not have the money to purchase the site. We keep telling her that this is not the case and the site is still valued as educational, but unfortunately bureaucracy reigns supreme and she refuses to listen to reason.
Please can all members of SENSE write letters to Marion Clayton expressing disgust at her lack of interest in this matter. Her postal address is:
11 Pound Street, Wendover, Aylesbury, Bucks. HP22 6EJ.