This proposal has already been widely opposed by local residents, local councillors, school governors and representatives due to the lack of foresight and logic behind the proposal.
Over the last 5 years Chichester has been subjected to unprecedented levels of new housing developments that have impacted every quarter of the city. In parallel to this, very little has been done to support the subsequent growing need for social and local infrastructure.
One of the largest of these developments has been the Minerva Heights development within the northwest area of Chichester. As part of this development, the local residents of Chichester were assured that a new Primary School would be built to cope with the thousands upon thousands of new houses being built within the local area.
Following on from this pledge being provided, WSCC has reverted on these commitments and is now proposing to relocate Jessie Younghusband (full to capacity) Primary School to the Minerva Heights, rather than provide a new school to cope with the demand that will result from the amount of increased housing within the local area.
In February 2024 the department responsible for the proposal for the relocation of Jessie Younghusband Primary School published a document - Planning School Places 2024. The document clearly shows that the Chichester area is scheduled to have a considerable shortage of primary school places if this proposal was to go ahead. This report is in the public domain.
The proposal is scheduled to provide 50 new SEN places (by expanding St Anthony’s which currently shares a site with Jessie Younghusband) however, 300 places are desperately needed. This is due to continued under funding from the local council and government to support SEN within the local area. The creation of these 50 additional places will also be at the expense of disrupting the lives of over 200 children and leaving the catchment area short of primary school places in the future. We propose that the WSCC reconsiders these plans and focuses on securing a solution that provides for the full deficit of 300 SEN school placements.
So, to summarise, we have a problem with SEN provisions created
by underfunding. And a proposal that does not resolve this and also
leaves a deficit of school placements in line with requirements
going forward for the area in question – therefore actually
creating another problem. We do not believe that relocating a full
to capacity school within a new housing development of over 1,600
new homes is adequate and we ask that you support our cause and
help us secure the required funding for both primary school and SEN
school placements in the Chichester area.
This ePetition runs from 19/04/2024 to 16/05/2024.
102 people have signed this ePetition.