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Council minutes, agendas and reports

Decision details

*Republished - no longer subject to call in* New primary school to serve Northallerton

Decision Maker: Executive Member for Education, Learning & Skills

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Is subject to call in?: No

Decision:

To proceed with the Presumption Route process for the establishment of a new primary school to serve Northallerton to maintain school place sufficiency in response to expected housing growth.


Reasons for the decision:

*PLEASE NOTE This decision was originally published on or near the date of the decision and so call in no longer applies. It has been re-published as part of the change in committee management system that we use.*

New school sites and accompanying developer contributions have been secured through section.106 agreements for Knaresborough and North Northallerton. Planning approval has been secured for both sites and procurement will commence during Autumn 2020. The expected opening date for both schools is September 2022 but this will be kept under review in light of ongoing uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

The new schools will be free schools in accordance with the DfE free school presumption guidance issued in November 2019. The presumption route contains an expectation that LAs will have undertaken stakeholder consultation prior to commencing the process which seeks to secure an academy sponsor for each school.

In accordance with requirements the consultation was live on the County Council’s website for 4 weeks and was publicised through our social media and the local press. In addition recognised stakeholders were sent a copy of the consultation document via email.

The consultation drew 10 responses for Northallerton. Although this may seem a low number it arguably reflects that the principle of establishing new schools is understood and accepted by local stakeholders who have already had the opportunity to respond to earlier consultations on each school via the town planning process. The responses that were received supported the principle of a new school for Northallerton.

North Northallerton is a total development of 859 dwellings on which development has started leaving 646 dwellings to be completed and occupied. The proposed new school would serve the immediate growth area formed by the North Northallerton development area, and also support general school place sufficiency in Northallerton for the medium to long-term.

Publication date: 16/04/2021

Date of decision: 10/11/2020