MP's disappointment after Education Secretary confirms £50m free school plan for Walsall
The MP for Walsall and Bloxwich has spoken of her disappointment at plans to build a £50 million free school at a former council-run golf course.
The Government in December 2025 approved a scheme for the school which will see a new sixth form and a department for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities(SEND) built on the land bordering Reedswood Park.
But MP Valerie Vaz said residents had concerns about access to the site from surrounding streets and concerns about general funding for schools in the borough which has a surplus of places.
Miss Vaz said: “On December 9, 2025 I met with the Minister for Children and Families Josh MacAlister, with headteachers and a school governor from schools in Walsall and Bloxwich to put the case to prioritise investment in existing schools over building a new free school on the former Reedswood Golf Course on the Jubilee Woodland.”
“I am disappointed that despite a positive meeting later that week the Secretary of State for Education announced that £50m would be allocated for the free school whilst cancelling other schools.”
“What is shocking is that the most recent figures provided by Walsall Council show that there will be a surplus of school places over the next six years. The educationalists confirmed this to the minister.”
“I first wrote to the Secretary of State on October 9, 2024 to raise this issue and the Secretary of State confirmed in a statement on October 22, 2024 that the 'free schools programme under the last Government often resulted in surpluses in school capacity'. The Secretary of State acknowledged that it was 'poor value for money and the over supply of places can be detrimental to more established schools.' The Secretary of State also said that 'some of the funding could have been put to better use improving the deteriorating condition of our existing schools and colleges'.
I support those conclusions. There are schools that can expand the number of places and meet the demand.
Joseph Leckie still has not received its full allocation since 2010 from Building Schools for the Future and needs a further upgrade to other parts of the building, Blue Coat CE Academy needs support to update its heating system. Other schools require funding to provide suitable recreational areas.”
“The need for a new school first arose in the Blakenall area in 2016, but the location has now been moved to the Reedswood Site. The new school will be in an area within 1.5 miles of four secondary schools, Bloxwich Academy, West Walsall E-ACT Academy, Blue Coat CE Academy and Willenhall E-Act Academy.”
“This does not represent value for money and in my view is an unjustified expenditure of public money. There has been no transparency as to how the Windsor Trust was awarded the contract to build the school.”
“I have tabled questions to resolve this transparency issue and I am awaiting the answers to my written questions to the Department for Education tabled on December 15, 2025 to which I should have received a reply on December 18, 2025.”
The site was the short-lived site of the nine-hole Reedswood Golf Course off Raybould's Bridge Road until its closure in 2007 due to the poor state of the land. Before that it was part of the Walsall Power Station site before demolition in 1987.
Trees were planted there to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
Chairman of community group Birchills Agenda 21and former councillor Chris Jones has campaigned for decades for the land to be retained as green space. The group has launched the 'Hands Off Our Park' campaign elating to the free school plan. Mr Jones said: "We are gutted by the decision which is in effect mean the over-development of this area which is already greenbelt deprived. Clearly the wrong building will be built in the wrong place."
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