VB readers may remember back at the beginning of February, we reported on the possible closure of primary schools in East Wight, West Wight, as well as an increase in provision in the Newport and East Cowes areas.
On Friday last week, a delegated decision was made in the presence of Cllr David Pugh, Cllr Dawn Cousins and Simon Wiggins, Democratic Services Officer on the future of Isle of Wight primary schools.
They agreed to go ahead and explore options, carry out a public consultation, and following that possibly increase primary school provision in East Cowes and Newport.
Possible closures in East and West Wight
The same process will occur for primary school provision in Freshwater, Totland and East Wight and may result in schools closing following the consultation.
Options approved can be seen below (the text in bold is an addition to the previous text in the Delegated Decision Notice).
- Option A – to develop options, consult on those options and, subject to the outcome of consultation, to publish proposals to reduce provision, whilst seeking to maintain the diversity of provision, for the Freshwater & Totland area.
- Option C – to develop options, consult on those options and, subject to the outcome of consultation, to publish proposals to increase provision for the Newport area.
- Option E – to develop options, consult on those options and, subject to the outcome of consultation, to publish proposals to increase provision for the East Cowes area.
- Option G – to develop options, consult on those options and, subject to the outcome of consultation, to publish proposals to replace the current provision in the East Wight area with a sustainable model of provision. Any proposal for change in relation to a school which was included in the 2009 independent panel’s review, must clearly demonstrate that the expected outcomes set out in the panel’s recommendations (on pages C-33 & C-34 of their report) would be fulfilled under such change.
- Any final decision for implementation that would lead to a change in respect of any of the schools in these four areas will not be made before the expansion of these schools to the full 4-11 age range has been completed.
Full details of the delegated decision are available online, with the call-in period (the ability for county councillors to have the decision scrutinised) expiring on 11th March.
