£1m spend and 125-year lease approved for new free school on Walsall woodland
Bosses at Walsall Council have approved a spend of £1million to the Department for Education (DfE) to start work on a new free school.
Leaders at a cabinet meeting on February 11 also approved a 125-year lease of Reedswood Park woodland for the new £50m facility.
It’s the next step in the major project which will see 13.7 acres of woodland and natural habitat replaced by a school for 1,000 students.
In 2017, the DfE approved a mainstream secondary free school for Blakenall and the wider area of Walsall.
It will be the first school to open in Walsall in over four decades.
The Windsor Academy Trust was appointed to operate the school and the DfE determined that Reedswood Park was the preferred site.
Since the announcement, many have argued that alternative existing school sites would make better use of taxpayers’ money and be less environmentally damaging.
The council says without the £50m investment, it would have to fund the required additional school places from its own capital budget.
It has also reported no negative health and wellbeing or climate implications as a result of losing 13.7 acres of public woodland.
Deputy leader Councillor Adrian Andrew said he ‘struggled to understand’ how anyone can oppose the project.
He said: “The total investment in education on this site is estimated to be around £45million. I struggle with how anyone can oppose an investment in our young people and future generations of £45million.
“The successful delivery of the free school will help the council to meet its statutory duty to provide sufficient school places close to homes of families that result in reduced travel times. This project has been going on for at least 10 years.
“It is not new, it has not suddenly been picked out of the air. All of the noise around this that it’s to do with the local plan is complete and utter nonsense.”
In the draft local plan which is subject to approval, Walsall Council has allocated the site of the proposed free school to prospective developers for 94 homes.
The woodland was formerly part of the Reedswood Colliery and later the former Walsall Power Station.
Following the decommissioning and demolition of the power station in 1987, a nine-hole municipal golf course was created on the site which closed in 2007.
The park has been awarded Green Flag status for the last three years, a recognition from Keep Britain Tidy under the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government. It is also an Asset of Community Value (ACV).
The free school funding was approved by the DfE on the basis that the site would be transferred by the council on a 125-year lease at a peppercorn rent, and that a contribution of £1million would be made by the council to the DfE to offset some of the abnormal development costs, estimated at £4.6million.
While the project has now been approved by cabinet members, it will still be subject to planning permission.
In the event that the DfE does not secure planning permission for the development, the lease will not be completed and the payment will not be made.
Councillor Mark Statham, portfolio holder for education, said: “This is an exciting time for Walsall. In December we were chosen as one of 16 locations across England to receive a new free school which will bring in approximately £45-50m of central funding into the borough, plus more in terms of associated social value through jobs and apprenticeships and further expenditure in the local economy.
“The government through the DfE have verified the numbers and agreed the needs. If the local plan is enacted in its entirety it’ll bring 18,000 properties to this borough over 15 years. If they are completely successful there will be another 18,000 children in there who will all need school places.
“The DfE has proposed the school is built on the former Reedswood golf course site which is council owned land next to, adjacent to, Reedswood Park, but not encroaching on the park or any historic woodland or jubilee woods that seem to be an invented term.”
Leader of the authority, Councillor Mike Bird added: “This is about education and sadly we have to educate the non-believers and the non-understanding individuals. This is as my colleagues have said is a major step forward for education and our children in Walsall and it’s not very often somebody gives you £50m to provide a new school.”
