Last Thursday I attended the Full Council Meeting at the Guildhall and spoke about the impact the closure of BCA is going to have on our communities. As a result of this, the Council has agreed to have a meeting to discuss the issues that we are now faced with and see what can be done going forward.

Here is a copy of my statement in full:

Statement to Full Council – 22/03/2018

Almost 8 years ago I stood in this room to talk with Councillors about the impact the closing of Culverhay school would have on our communities. The children in the South West of Bath needed a co-educational school that served their needs, yet the administration at that time decided this city didn’t need the school.

We fought hard and managed to secure an academy on the Rush Hill site, however, over these last 8 years most of the other secondary schools in Bath became academies themselves and increased their intake levels. All the time not actually stopping to think what impact this was having on our children.

We now find ourselves in a situation where Cabot have backed out of helping our children, with BCA closing in July, several secondary schools reducing their intake levels and the government deciding to stop supporting Free schools, thereby leaving large numbers of children without a school they can safely walk or cycle to in this city.

My son was forced to move to a new school last September forcing me to either join the large number of parents that drive their children to school or find £20 per week for bus fares.

St Marks has seen their year 7 intake increase from 40 pupils last year to 140 proposed this year, almost doubling the number of children in the whole school overnight. Many of these places have been given to children from the South West of Bath who didn’t even put it down as one of their choices, we were assured this would not happen. As it was BANES admissions that have allocated these places and as many these children do not live within 3 miles walking distance surely Free school transport is going to be provided for them, what budget is that cost going to be coming from?

The cost to get children to school is going to have a massive impact on families that are already living on or close to the breadline pushing them over the edge and having to juggle already impossible budgets. This will also create even more cross city traffic adding to pollution and school run chaos.
The time it is going to take in travel will mean our children are going to be so tired every day from early starts and returning late and not being able to join in after school activities as they have busses
to catch to make sure they get home at a reasonable time to be able to do their homework.

In just a few years, this authority is going to face a shortfall of secondary school places with all the current secondary schools already cramming children into over-populated sites. Does the Rush Hill site not have a covenant on it that states it is to be used for educational purposes only?

Is there nothing you can do to retain secondary education on the Rush Hill site, do our children mean so little to you. They are our future and every single one of them matter and deserve the support to grow and become successful members of our society. Action needs to be taken now before the Rush Hill site is lost forever.