Reading your front page story last week readers may be forgiven for thinking we would be happy to allocate housing to a variety of sites without a second thought for the necessary infrastructure and school places that would be needed as well.
I’d like to take the opportunity to set the record straight and offer some reassurance to readers on how we prepare for developments.
It is a fact we do need to allocate further sites for potential housing – it’s a government priority and like all councils we need to ensure we have sufficient housing into the future. However, in tandem with any proposed development is a clear commitment to ensure the right infrastructure and sufficient school places are available.
The story did focus on schools and unfortunately failed to mention a rather important point. We have a Wiltshire School Places Strategy which is a plan ahead document which looks into the future and assesses how much school provision will be needed. This long-term planning document ensures the funding is in place and we can ensure every Wiltshire child has a place.
It is this diligent planning which means high percentages of pupils attend the school of their choice. This September 96 per cent of secondary school and 92 per cent of primary school pupils will be attending their first choice school.
Another point to highlight is when we provide school places they are not carried out in an ad hoc way, they are well thought out and planned. In April this year the Department for Education put us top in the country for providing the best quality new school places at primary and secondary school level. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-school-places-scorecards-2016
Of course there will always be challenges but we want readers to understand we do plan ahead to ensure we can meet school demand for the future.
The final point I’d like to make is to remind readers these are draft plans. We need readers to tell us what they think and they can do so until September 22. The plan will then have to go through various levels of scrutiny including by an independent inspector before it can be approved. I’d urge people to make their views known online at http://consult.wiltshire.gov.uk/portal/spatial_planning/sites_dpd/draftwhsap or visit one of our many consultation events.
We have two events next week, on Monday in Devizes Town Hall and on Wednesday in County Hall, Trowbridge, both from noon-7pm. The plans will also be available at our main offices at Chippenham, Salisbury and Trowbridge and our libraries.
Cllr Laura Mayes
Cabinet member for children, education and skills