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School expansion - Freddie Dawkins (30th Mar 2004 - 10:21:03) For all those who didn't make the annual Parish meeting last night, there was some interesting debate about the school/traffic issues. John Wilkinson, Assistant County Education Officer for Hampshire CC, spoke for about 30 minutes. It was a wide-ranging talk and illuminated some of the concerns we all have about achievement, management and future planning. John was surprisingly frank about the lack of forward planning in terms of new schools, catchment areas and the like. He was happy to exchange views with Parish Councillors and Parishoners, about the situation here in Liphook. Although there were no real answers to the dilemma of lack of capacity, he was tackled on the proposed land deal which the Parish and District councils have been working on. He did admit that Bohunt and both the Infant and Junior schools don't seem to want to get any bigger, ergo, we'll need new schools. The Longmoor Road land/development route appears to be a likely winner - but there's no time plan or budget allocated. Tomorrow, in Winchester, there's the hearing about the new classroom being added in The Avenue. I know some local people are attending. Starts at 09.30. Barry Hope has details or you can call the Parish Office on 722988. rgds to all here Freddie Dawkins

Re: School expansion - Nick Hancock (30th Mar 2004 - 12:49:50) Freddie, what would be the Longmoor Road development deal that you mention? Would this be the suggestion of using land on Longmoor Road adjacent to the Bohunt site for new Infants / Junior schools? Is the idea really to turn the western side of the village into a kind of education ghetto, with Bohunt plus up to two Infants and two Junior schools? Do the plans include widening Longmoor Road to six lanes to accommodate the traffic generated by parents living on the other side of the village (and elsewhere)? I think I'm right to say that, at the planning forum in January, it was agreed that this would not be a good location. And whilst on the subject - has anyone asked HCC what the predicted need is for state school places over the coming years? So far, despite the village's growth, they have tended to predict falling school rolls. This may be why quite a number of the places in the Liphook schools have been filled by children who come - by car! - from outside the village.

Re: School expansion - Freddie Dawkins (30th Mar 2004 - 17:05:50) Nick - I'm not directly involved, so can only report what was being said last night. The value of actually attending meetings. It came across as a firm idea at the moment, that certainly EHDC and possibly HCC, want to do some kind of deal on land in Longmoor Road past Bohunt. From what John Wilkinson was saying, we'd have to have three new schools: an infants, a juniors, and a comprehensive. BUT, John did stress that he was not aware of any actual plasn yet - and HCC were criticised by others at the meeting, as they don't seem to have any real forward plans for new schools in this area - even though they admit that the the three schools are full and more and more housing = more and more children -will come into the Parish. I know some people are going to Winchester tomorrow morning and I'm sure Barry Hope will be able to add some info when he returns. Freddie Dawkins

Re: School expansion - Barry Hope (1st Apr 2004 - 15:33:31) As promised by me (and Freddie) here is the update to the school extension saga. I attended the Regulatory Committee hearing at the Castle Winchester on Wednesday and (after waiting from 9.30 to 1.00pm) they considered the application for the additional classroom at the Infants School. Neil Ivens from the School Governors gave a deputation and I also had my chance. Unfortunately there were so many others there to give their views on other applications that we were cut down to 4 minutes each so I had little time to give the full speech I intended. Anyway the result was that they passed the application. Not only that but, there was originally a condition included in their notes which stated that the Traffic Management Plan should be reviewed, revised and implemented prior to the classroom being used but this got changed to the effect that they no longer have to put this in place first but that it should be implemented as soon as possible after it has been reviewed and revised. So it seems the residents of the local community have to wait once again for any action to deal with the traffic problems which, at the moment, is less than clear both regarding time scales and the actions it will recommend. Once again, I stated that in principal we were not opposed to the classroom but to the increasing inconvenience and problems caused by the lack of any serious consideration given by HCC and other statutory bodies to finding a long term and workable solution to them. Looks like we have to now have to wait for the TMP to be implemented before we see what effect it will have. I tried my best, just sorry we couldn’t get any more progress on the issue. Still, congratulations to the Infant School for getting their classroom, at least one group of people will be happy, not sure about local residents though. Regards Barry

Re: School expansion - Mike Grimes (2nd Apr 2004 - 00:48:39) As you might expect, I am pleased that the additional classroom has been approved. This now means that sixty local children, each year, will not, now, have to be taught in mixed year group classes. I am pleased that HCC were wise enough to see this as an entirely separate issue to that of the traffic problems around Avenue Close. I will be more than happy to support any sensible proposals to alleviate the traffic problems around the schools. I will not be happy to support parish councillors who stand merely to promote local long standing grievances rather than the good of the village as a whole.

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