“Bullying” is involved over plans to expand pupil numbers at a Penrith primary school, it has been claimed.
Penrith town councillor David Knaggs, who attended a consultation meeting on Monday at Beaconside School, said the proposal would see pupil numbers there grow from 480 to 599 over a number of years — rather than a new school being built at Carleton.
Westmorland and Furness Council has been given a pot of money by house builders — known as Section 106 funding — to provide additional school places for children living in new housing which has been constructed in Penrith over recent years.
It is aimed at making sure there are enough school places for the existing local population, plus people moving into new housing.
A meeting of Penrith Town Council on Wednesday was told that the original plan had been to use the funding to build a new school in the Carleton area of Penrith to serve a number of new housing estates in that area. But now there was a risk of that funding being lost, unless approval was granted to extend the number of pupils at Beaconside by 119. There would also be extra provision of specialist support for children with special educational needs and disabilities at the school.
“It is all about selling one proposal and really bullying us into not going against it because of the potential loss of the Section 106 money,” said Mr Knaggs, of a consultation being carried out by Westmorland and Furness Council which ends on 31st October.
“When a lot of people bought their houses on the Carleton estate there was a school on the map. It must be terrible for them to see that school taken from that map now.
“It is the residents of Carleton who are most affected by this,” said Mr Knaggs, who added there was no other state school provision on the east side of the town.
He added the average primary school nationally had 281 pupils and, if the proposal was carried through, numbers at Beaconside would be more than double that.
“It will be an excessively large primary school, more like the size of a secondary than a primary school,” he said.
“A small child on their first day in a school with nearly 600 pupils, one short of 600, they are going to feel fairly lost and not as safe as they would in a small, community-focused school,” said Mr Knaggs.
He added that if a school had been built at Carleton, it would have been at the heart of the community, and would have helped consolidate the new estates.
Town councillor Scott Jackson said: “When you focus too much provision in one place, you limit the options in a town and it is not acceptable.
“There is also a problem for residents around Beaconside. It is already very dangerous on those roads at school drop-off and pick-up times.”
He added: “We could, with a new school, design something that is fit for purpose — not something that is 40, 50, 60 years old that is trying to expand in an area where it is hemmed in.”
Paul Donald, who also sits on the town council, said he felt like the whole process, with such a short window being offered to get responses in, was “an underhand form of consultation”.
“There does not seem to be any sense of what this is about for children and their future as well as what it means for the town,” said Mr Donald.
At a meeting of the Eden locality committee for Westmorland and Furness Council, held on the same evening as the town council meeting, councillor Pat Bell said: “I absolutely support the proposals — they are absolutely excellent. Beaconside is a brilliant school. I think it will be very good.
“My plea would be, please can more attention be put on managing school traffic,” said Mrs Bell, which she described as being a “nightmare” first thing in the morning.
“I know that there is work going on, but it needs to move at pace, especially if the school is going to get bigger,” said Mrs Bell.
She added that when Westmorland and Furness Council considers what happens to the site which had been set aside (for a school at Carleton) that they take into consideration the needs of the community with a view to perhaps providing a recreation area of some kind.
Hillary Carrick, however, raised a concern that there might be a knock-on impact on Penrith’s North Lakes School, particularly on its financial viability, as a consequence of Beaconside’s expansion.
A spokesman for Westmorland and Furness Council said: “The council is currently consulting on a proposal to increase pupil numbers at Beaconside CE Primary School, including increasing the number of resource provision places.
“We’re keen to understand the views of all stakeholders, including the school’s parents, staff and governors and would encourage anyone with an interest in education in the Penrith area to submit their comments before the consultation ends on 31st October.”
Details of the consultation can be found at https://consult.westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk/education/expansion-of-places-at-beaconside-ce-primary-schoo/
