Question
The Council’s plan to tackle climate change contains the following
Part of the Arborfield Green (Garrison) planning permission was to provide two primary schools for the new occupants and had the developer not agreed planning permission would have been quite rightly refused by the Planning Department.
When the primary school was nearing completion Wokingham Borough Council’s Children’s Services agreed to shut Farley Hill School and moved it in its entirety to the new school location at Arborfield Green, even calling it Farley Hill Primary School, so denying children living directly outside the gates of the new school access.
As a result of this decision all the primary school aged children in Arborfield Green have to be driven to surrounding primary schools while many who attended Farley Hill now have a much longer drive to the new school
How does this fit in with the five bullet points in the Council’s plan to tackle climate emergency?
Minutes:
The Council’s plan to tackle climate change contains the following:
· Reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transport;
· Create a local plan that specifies net zero construction and infrastructure;
· Increase the levels of carbon sequestration the Borough through greening the environment;
· Engage with young people and support sustainable schools;
· Encouraging behaviour change.
Part of the Arborfield Green (Garrison) planning permission was to provide two primary schools for the new occupants and had the developer not agreed planning permission would have been quite rightly refused by the Planning Department.
When the primary school was nearing completion Wokingham Borough Council’s Children’s Services agreed to shut Farley Hill School and moved it in its entirety to the new school location at Arborfield Green, even calling it Farley Hill Primary School, so denying children living directly outside the gates of the new school access.
As a result of this decision all the primary school aged children in Arborfield Green have to be driven to surrounding primary schools while many who attended Farley Hill now have a much longer drive to the new school
How does this fit in with the five bullet points in the Council’s plan to tackle climate emergency?
Answer
At a strategic level our planning for the Borough’s Strategic Development Locations (or SDLs) has been underpinned by principles of creating sustainable communities that can sustain local access to services and amenities whilst minimising the need to travel. This is also underpinned by sustainable transport options both within and between SDLs and with existing main town centres. As you rightly point out, ensuring primary school provision to meet future anticipated need within these new communities has always been a key priority and, although pre-dating our climate emergency, fully in line with the principles of sustainable development by reducing the need to travel and minimising carbon impact.
Of course, in detail at any one point in time changing the overall pattern of primary provision and seeking to balance demand versus school places available across the system will never be an exact science and there will always be some anomalies. It is anticipated that these will reduce over time as these new communities mature.
For many years the Farley Hill Primary School has been one of two schools serving the homes associated with the Arborfield Garrison and what is now the Arborfield Green and associated Finchwood Park areas. Relocating the Farley Hill Primary School to this site means that children living in these areas (the majority of the children on roll) attending the school have the opportunity to walk, scoot or cycle to the school. Previously only the very small number of children living in Farley Hill Village itself could easily travel to the school sustainably. The relocation has therefore significantly reduced school run traffic and this reduction has had a beneficial impact on reducing CO2 emissions. In addition, it is proposed that the school expands to a full two forms of entry and, as the enlarged school grows, increasing numbers of children from the area immediately around the school will be admitted. Again, overall, the number of children with the opportunity to walk to school, rather than be driven, will increase.
The new school premises could not open as a new school in 2021, as there was insufficient local need to ensure that all local schools, including potentially both the Farley Hill Primary School and the Coombes CofE Primary School, in the Arborfield ward, could remain financially sustainable. Conversely, relocating the Farley Hill Primary School enabled significant numbers of children from the former Arborfield Garrison, Arborfield Green and Finchwood Park areas to benefit from a school they could walk to at the earliest opportunity. It also addressed the long-standing issue of some undersized classrooms in the original Farley Hill School building.
Supplementary Question
I think I would challenge that. The planning regulations are, if they said no we are building the school there, the school would not be there and neither would the houses. On top of the utter stupidity of denying children access to a school where the child lives directly opposite the gate, how does the Council square the Climate Emergency circle when other departments approve trees being cut down, including trees with TPOs to facilitate development and also approve development that allows extra vehicles on roads which the Council already recognises as being over capacity.
My question is: should all Council departments be promoting the Climate Emergency aims or is it ok to ignore them when a few houses are in the offing?
Supplementary Answer
There is a mix of disciplines in there. I am responsible for Children’s Services and schools. What I would say is that we are making changes and we are undertaking consultations in order to change catchment areas in order to make it more walkable to those schools, to make them more accessible. I would also say that, from a point of education, we have had a programme for 18 months to put solar on schools. It is part of the school curriculum. The curriculum is set by the School Commissioners, as schools are academies. So we cannot command what the curriculum will be. We are trying to influence that by bringing down the cost of electricity very visibly. There are other motions in play as well.