Today at the County Council's cabinet I spoke in support of the proposals to build a new full-sized secondary school in Grove for 1200 pupils with its own sixth form. This was welcome news after the decision was taken over 2 years ago that only a small 600-place school without a sixth form would be built.
At that time, there had been a public consultation exercise with 3 possible options, a large 'superschool' for both Grove and Wantage, two separate schools of around equal size for both communities or a small 600-place school for Grove. The smaller school option was chosen. However, although we sought assurances that the school could 'grow' in size if necessary, there was always going to be a problem for developers and planners to set aside a large enough site to allow for this to happen. Now however, this can be planned in from the start and ensure that shared community facilities can also be provided for at the same time.
As part of the proposals, King Alfred's School will downsize to 2 sites in Wantage, and there is hope that funding can be applied for from government BSF (Building Schools for the Future) programme. You can read the agenda report here.
Another important decision was taken at Cabinet today, which again I spoke in support of - this was for the important transport infrastructure to be agreed and worked on in advance of any housing development coming to Grove and Wantage. This is referred to as the SCOTS (Southern Central Oxfordshire Transport Study) report and has been rumbling on for some time. Read the press report here and the agenda item here
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