Controversial Catholic super-school proposals move on to next phase

Alec Doyle, Local Democracy Reporter

Opponents of plans to close four faith schools and replace them with a £55m Catholic school for pupils aged three to 18 will have a further chance to lodge formal objections.

Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet has agreed to move plans for the new school in Flint to the statutory notice stage.

Once the notice is published, objectors will have 28 days to submit their responses.

The plans involve the closure of St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School in Saltney at the end of this academic year next July.

They also stipulate the closure of St David’s Catholic Primary in Mold and the Flntn Schools St Mary’s Catholic Primary and St Richard Gwyn Catholic High once the new £55 million school building – which will be situated on land next to St Mary’s and St Richard Gwyn – is completed.

This is the second consultation these plans have undergone after an initial legal challenge by parents at St David’s. In total more than 6,000 people have responded with 97% or respondents rejecting the proposals.

At a special meeting of Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet on Tuesday members voted to allow the process to continue despite another legal challenge.

Addleshaw Goddard – the legal representatives of the St David’s Action Group – wrote to Flintshire Council citing allegations of non-compliance with the school code, allegedly insufficient evidence for the educational case for the plans, alleged failure to consider sufficient alternatives, alleged failure to consider future housing growth and an alleged failure to consider the public sector equality duty and the impact on people with additional learning needs.

Chief Officer (Governance) Gareth Jones advised Cabinet that the authority rejected every allegation and members were safe to proceed.

“The council firmly rejects those as grounds of challenge,” he said. “We will add the letter from Addleshaw Goddard to the consultation response and add our reply into the consultation report.”

Refined

Cllr Mared Eastwood, Cabinet Member for Education, Welsh Language Culture and Leisure told members that the most recent consultation feedback had been refined and included in their reports.

“All consultation responses received have been reviewed and a summary of the responses has been prepared in accordance with section 49 of the School Standards and Organisation Wales Act 2013 and School Organisation Code 2026,” she said.

“We are being asked today to consider whether the proposals relating to the Catholic provision should proceed to the issuing of a statutory notice.

“Cabinet must base its decision on the likely impact on quality and standards in education, the likely impact on the community and the likely effect of different travelling arrangements.

“A significant number of briefings, meetings and engagement sessions have been undertaken as part of this proposal and considerable time and care has been dedicated to reviewing and analysing the consultation responses received.

“I would like to place on record our thanks to everyone who took the time to engage with this process and in particular to the children and young people who share their views so openly and thoughtfully. Their contributions have been invaluable and will play an important part in shaping our considerations today.

“Cabinet is required to base its decision not on the volume of consultation responses but on the substance and relevance of the issues raised.”

Cllr Jason Shallcross, who represents Saltney, asked: “The consultation identified significant concerns and objections to the proposal.

“Having considered those views, what evidence supports the case that the proposal will deliver greater long-term educational and community benefits than retaining the current arrangements?”

Feedback

Chief Officer for Education and Youth Claire Homard responded to say : “The council takes all consultation feedback extremely seriously, regardless of whether it indicates support for the proposal, opposition to the proposal or is neutral to it.

“We are following a statutory process here and the statutory consultation process is not to conduct a referendum or determine a proposal solely on the number of views that are expressed. It is about gathering views, identifying issues.

“It’s about understanding the impact of the proposals and ensuring that decision makers are fully informed before they make a final determination. And I think it’s fair to say that the number of responses that we have received through this consultation process does demonstrate the very high level of interest and the engagement that we’ve had in relation to these proposals.

“Schools are important to their pupils, to their families, to their local communities, to their parishes and it’s really important that they have that opportunity to express their views.

“As officers, we’ve really welcomed that engagement and we have, I can assure you, very carefully considered all of those responses.

“It’s really important to reiterate that these really important decisions must be based on a balanced assessment of all of the relevant evidence and those strategic considerations rather than just focusing on the levels of support.

“We have looked very carefully at factors such as educational outcomes, learner experiences, the sustainability of the provision, the financial viability of those schools, the level of surplus places, the experience of learners, the condition and suitability of buildings, the leadership capacity within the schools, demographic trends.

“We’ve got to be thinking about how, as a council, can we protect the long term viability of a high quality education offer for future generations?

“I think it is fair to say that that existence of opposition doesn’t really in itself demonstrate that the proposal shouldn’t proceed.

“The key consideration is whether the proposal represents the most appropriate and most sustainable solution when all of that evidence is collectively considered.”

Cabinet decided that it did and the authority is expected to launch the 28-day consultation period in the coming days.

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