Context
Leeds City Council has a legal duty to ensure the provision of sufficient school places in the city, and due to a rising birth rate and new housing developments, has established an on-going city wide school expansion programme to meet increased demand for school places.
Ardsley and Tingley is a planning area within the city that is seeing an increased demand for primary age places. Data used for planning school places identifies that a need for an additional 30 reception places (equivalent to up to 1 form of entry) may be needed across the area by 2017.
As part of the process for identifying options and reviewing school place provision in these areas, a stakeholder engagement event was held on 2 December 2014. The aim was to bring key stakeholders together to discuss the issues and generate ideas and solutions. Those invited to attend the event included school governors, head teachers, elected members, parent representatives and officers from teams across the council including school capacity planning, highways, planning and built environment.
A summary of the suggestions put forward:
Please note that these suggestions may not have been put forward by representatives of the stated school and therefore may not represent that school’s governing body view. In addition, there are also a number of practical barriers to some of the options put forward, including traffic and highways matters. Where sites or land use is suggested, this land may not be available or be in Leeds City Council’s ownership and would therefore need further investigation. Value for money, the location of a new site or existing site, and split site arrangements are all issues which need to be taken into account when determining a way forward.
Each option may be considered in isolation or in combination with others.
1.Expand Thorpe PS from 1FE to 2FE, creating 30 additional places
2.Expand Blackgates PS from 2FE to 3FE, creating 30 additional places.
3.Expand Hill Top PS from 1FE to 2FE, creating 30 additional places.
4.Open a new 2FE Primary School in Ardsley or Tingley, on a yet to be identified site or building.
5.Investigate the creation of an Early Years ‘Hub’ in the disused Ardsley Chapel for a Primary School to use; therefore making space for additional Reception places.
*Option 4 would require the establishment of a new school. We would need to seek an academy provider to run the school, the local authority would be required to fund the building of the school. VA (voluntary aided schools) can be established in some circumstances.
We would welcome your comments on the above suggestions or any other options you feel we should consider.
This part of the consultation process will close on 22 December 2014. A further consultation process will be undertaken if a decision is made to progress any of the options.
Ardsley / Tingley Stakeholder Event Presentation
Thank you for your comments and suggestions. This part of the consultation process is now closed. We will analyze your comments and suggestions and feed them into the work we have been doing to look at the next stage of the process.
Leeds School Place Planning 