News in brief: New alternative provision to form blueprint for previously criticised North unitary
A news round up this Good Friday
A new alternative provision base and SEN unit will be created at a North Northamptonshire secondary school, with the local education authority allocating more than £2.5m to fund it.
Twelve months ago North Northamptonshire Council and the county’s health board were heavily criticised by Ofsted for their special needs provision, with widespread failings found.
A lack of strategy concerning the commissioning of suitable, good quality alternative provision for children who had been excluded from school or were unable to attend mainstream, was one of the many criticisms, with council bosses told to come up with a plan on how to sort out the situation.
Yesterday the authority pushed through an urgent capital project for cabinet sign off to create the new provision at Prince William School in Oundle. £2.59m will be taken from the high needs grant to create the new provision which by 2028 should have space for 48 pupils.
NNC says it expects to save £810k in the first year of operation from the expansion project, due to the reduced cost of in-house specialist provision. By 2027/28, when the 48 places are all filled, it expects to save £2.59m.
Cllr Scott Edwards, executive member for children, families and education, told members at the meeting:
“These children, for whatever reason, cannot attend mainstream school or a special school and it’s a vital resource for those to be able to get that education and for us to be able to work with those children.
“The most exciting thing about this is it’s a blueprint, so this is going to be the first of four across the region. It’s vital that we get this right, it’s vital that we approve this today.
“We are working with our most vulnerable children within this, those children who are deserving of an education and those children who need to have the best start in life as well.”
He added that expressions of interest requests would be going out to other schools to create more SEND places in the coming years in primary, secondary and early years education.
Three other schools will receive funding for improvements to enable them to provide more places.
The Alfred Lord Tennyson School in Rushden will receive £925k and Latimer Arts College in Kettering will be given £561k to complete renovations and meet increased pupil demand.
NNC has said there is a need for more secondary school capacity in Kettering. The Latimer Arts School has been chosen to deliver an extra 49 places across years 7, 8 and 9. Some capital works are needed to increase the size of dining areas and other spaces to accommodate more students in the next academic year.
From September 2023, Rushden’s Tennyson Road Infants and Alfred Street Junior amalgamated as a single school, with the intention to move all pupils onto one site from September 2025. Since the project started, costs have increased and the total spend will be £1.6m.
The funding will go towards renovation works, including removing asbestos, minimising the disruption to pupils currently at the school and ensuring the combined site is ready for the transfer of students in the 2025/26 school year.
Reviews carried out by NNC have also indicated that additional capacity for students with special educational needs (SEND) is needed ‘urgently’.
The authority will use the leftover space from the Tennyson Road Infant School transfer to renovate the grounds and provide an additional 28 SEND places. Rowan Gate Special School currently occupies half of the site but will be allocated £626k to renovate and take over the whole facility for Infant-aged pupils who require specialist provision.
Rowan Gate says it needs the extra space to meet its pupil demands from September 2025. Work is expected to start over the summer holiday when the building is empty and be ready from the October half-term.
NNC says it will update members in the autumn on the progress of the schemes.
Report by Nadia Lincoln and Sarah Ward
News in brief
Plans for a large warehousing development near a Northants town will go to appeal as the council has failed to make a decision on the site for more than three years.
A 10-day inquiry has been scheduled over applicant Equites Newlands (Thrapston East) LTD’s proposals for a 50,000 sqm warehouse and outline plans for a larger storage and distribution zone in Northamptonshire countryside. According to planning documents, DHL has been named as the lead occupier for the first unit, with detailed plans for the other warehouses to follow.
The proposals would see units built on approximately 60 hectares of farmland known as Castle Manor Farm, next to the A14, near Thrapston and Titchmarsh.
North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) validated the application over three years ago in February 2022. An expiry date, which refers to the timeframe within which a local planning authority is required to make a decision, of December 2024 was noted on the plans however NNC has not issued one.
The government’s Planning Inspectorate will now take over from NNC and assess the plans in full.
If approved at appeal, all buildings would be restricted to a maximum height of 24m and a maximum size of 200,000 sqm across all units. It has been suggested that another three warehouses would make up the rest of the plots, but the precise layout of the wider site is not fixed at this stage.
Campaign group Staunch (Save Titchmarsh and Upper Nene Countryside and Habitats) has maintained its strong objections to the site throughout. It says the plans would have major damaging impacts on highways and the natural environment and states that more storage and distribution units are not needed locally.
An online petition started by Staunch calling to save the Upper Nene Valley countryside from ‘massive industrialisation’ has received more than 4,000 signatures. According to NNC’s website, more than 760 members of the public objected to the plans and just three letters were received in support.
According to appeal documents, all comments from interested parties are due on May 16. The hearing is scheduled to begin on July 8 and last for approximately two weeks.
An NNC spokesperson said that it would be writing to affected residents to highlight that an appeal has been lodged, set out the relevant timeframes and advise on how people can engage with the process.
Report by Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
A man suspected of shooting a teenager in a Corby woodland has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
The violent incident happened on the Hazel Wood close to Corby’s swimming pool and Corby Cube complex last Friday afternoon.
Police say the 17-year-old, who has not been named, is expected to make a recovery. He was airlifted to hospital after the gun attack.
The suspected gunman, aged 20, was arrested four days after the attack and at the time of publishing, police had not released any information about whether he had been charged.
The Reform UK candidate who NN Journal revealed had made a series of racist and sexist posts has not been suspended.
Ron Firman continues to be in the running for the Hunsbury election as the party has not taken any action or made a statement about conduct. The chair of the South Northants branch has also not been taking calls from the media.
Firman is a councillor on East Hunsbury Parish Council, and the council has said it does not have the power to remove councillors but has reminded Firman of the standards required in public life.
Have a nice Easter weekend, and we’ll be back on the other side of the bank holiday.