Tell us what you think. That’s the message from Gloucestershire County Council to a range of local authorities and organisations.
The Education Authority is seeking views and information from the local community as it is concerned that the two Primary Schools planned for the new Kingsway development, the fast growing homes jobs and leisure destination located on the A38 just south of Gloucester, may not be big enough.
The two new schools are planned to service the 3,000 plus homes to be built on Kingsway during the period up to end of the decade.
The first is to be built soon and is to be financed by the developer members of QUVL, the consortium building Kingsway. Explains Project Manager David Sanderson, “Quedgeley Urban Village Ltd has come to an agreement with Education Officers at Gloucestershire County Council to build a new two-form entry school on the Kingsway development.”
Work is scheduled to commence this year and completion is planned for 2008. Payment for the school is part of the agreement relating to the planning permission given to QUVL to develop Kingsway. A second primary school is planned for the later phase of development.
However, Linda Uren, Gloucestershire Education Authority’s Director of Commissioning and Partnership, is uncertain whether the size of the new Kingsway schools will cope with the demand, and so has asked local people for their opinions.
Ms Uren is seeking guidance and information from a wide part of the local community including the general public, local MPs, the Gloucester and Clifton dioceses, the Gloucestershire Learning and Skills Council, the Gloucester City and Stroud District Councils and six parish councils.
In her consultation she highlights that predicting requirement is difficult, which is why she is canvassing opinions: “The education requirement will depend to an extent on the speed houses are built and families move in, something that is outside the control of the Education Authority.”
The consultation has a responses deadline of next month.