Mark Todd

Building Schools for the Future - the project to rebuild secondary schools - has been delayed for
Swadlincote.

Derbyshire County Council had proposed to use the £44m to close William Allitt and
create two new schools to serve the area.

However, after objections from the staff, governors and pupils indicated that many people wanted to see three schools not two, the council has decided to hold back the cash pending further
consultation.  In the short-term, this money (part of £143m grant for Derbyshire)
will now go to schools in Alfreton instead.

Part of the consultation will include factoring in increased pupil numbers if proposed new housing developments go ahead in and around Swadlincote.

Mark said: "The news has been met with mixed reaction from South Derbyshire's schools with some welcoming the opportunity to think further and others anxious that a one in a generation cash injection could be lost.

"But I think it is a realistic decision. The county council's population growth projection has only taken into account data up to 2015, but there are projections after that point. We don't want the county council to close one school to make two large schools only to have people say that they could have done with the third school after all. Look at what happened at Hatton where a small secondary school closed, then growth in Hilton, Willington and the Pastures hospital site added to pressures on John Port making it one of the largest schools in England."