Sefton Central Conservatives have repeatedly expressed concern about the number of new houses being approved throughout the borough and the absence of basic amenities, especially schools, to support those developments.
In 2022, Sefton Council drafted an “Update to Contributions towards education provision: A guide for developers.”
The report stated that
“As the Sefton Local Plan identified a need for 11,500 new homes, it is necessary that several primary schools need to increase their capacity to accommodate the additional children from the new housing developments. To seek a contribution towards primary school expansion from developers, the Council consulted on and approved a note to set out what contributions a developer should pay. This was approved in September 2017 and applied to housing schemes of more than 10 homes.”
The report revealed predicted primary pupil numbers and the current available places between 2020/21 and 2025/26.
This assessment concluded that “in Southport, Sefton East Parishes and Crosby new primary school places were likely to be required but that no additional school places are needed in Bootle, Netherton or Formby.”
However, it is notable that the report shows the current capacity of Formby Primary Schools in 2020/21 to be 1784 pupils but by 2025/26 the total anticipated pupils will reach 1868. In other words, a shortfall of 84 places, yet no plans are in place to increase primary school capacity in Formby.
Crosby:
There is spare capacity in primary schools across the wider Crosby area, but these are not suitably located for the large Thornton housing developments, being the west of the town (e.g. Waterloo Primary). However, there is a shortage of school places in the east of the town and in the Thornton area.
Hightown
Whilst Hightown is within Manor ward, the children from the village generally go to Formby schools, it is proposed to exclude Hightown parish area from the area that education contributions are sought from housing developers.
Maghull/Lydiate
Most of the housing allocations in Sefton East parishes are in the east of the town or around Aintree/Melling. There are schools in the west of the town and Lydiate, notably Lydiate Primary school, that have relatively high levels of spare capacity. It is therefore proposed to only seek education primary contributions from Molyneux and Sudell wards.
The Maghull school capacity will increase by 210 for Summerhill once expanded and by up to 105 for Melling Primary. Once these are accounted for Maghull is not anticipated to have a under supply of places overall. However, much of the excess supply is in the Lydiate/West Maghull area.
However, it will be noted that in July 2023 Sefton Council’s Planning Committee rejected the application to enlarge Summerhill Primary School, Poverty Lane, Maghull leaving in question how pupils from the new housing estates will be accommodated. In April 2024 a new planning application was submitted, the decision for which is awaited.
Southport and Ainsdale
Many of Southport’s housing allocations are located in the North East/Churchtown area. The Council have already signed agreements with developers on several sites that will secure payments towards expanded primary provision in this part of the town. However, it is unlikely that additional primary school provision will be required in other parts of the town, such as Ainsdale, Birkdale and in central Southport. This is because these areas don’t include many housing allocations and the existing schools have capacity to absorb any increase in pupil numbers.
Secondary school provision
The report also noted that: “No additional secondary school places are currently necessary anywhere in Sefton.” Whilst numerically this may be a true statement, it cannot be denied that parental choice in selecting a secondary school is skewing the data.
Most of Sefton’s secondary schools are now self-governing Academies and outside the Local Authority’s influence. The most successful secondary schools are at, or above, capacity, whilst the less attractive schools are struggling to fill their places. To cope with this deficit, some have taken the radical steps of mothballing part of their school site, bringing in primary provision into the spare buildings or closing down their 6th Forms.
Sefton also offers parental choice through a variety of private, fee-paying schools. These themselves are under pressure as a result of the Labour opposition’s proposals to remove charitable status and introduce VAT on fees. There is evidence that some of these private schools are reducing their pupil intake and selling off surplus school accommodation.
The question will arise, Where will displaced secondary school pupils go if the private sector shrinks its capacity in Sefton?
Sefton’s Labour controlled local authority has stood on the sidelines and ignored these changes, arguing it is down to the Academies and the private schools to manage their pupil numbers.
This head-in-the-sand approach is inexcusable.
Marcus Bleasdale, Conservative candidate for Sefton Central said:
“If elected as your MP, I would chair a round table debate involving the Community Schools, Local Authority, Academies and Private Sector to devise an integrated solution which will meet the needs of secondary school students across Sefton Central. Our children’s education is too important to ignore and leave entirely to market forces. There should be a sharing of best practice across all our schools to help ensure the highest standards are achieved for our pupils.”
Source: https://www.sefton.gov.uk/media/5694/draft-education-note-update-2022.p…
