York’s Conservative led Executive wants to launch a formal consultation on plans to meet the demand for primary school places in the South Bank area.
The January meeting City of York Council’s Executive considered a report on how to meet the increasing demand for primary school places in South Bank. The report gave a number of options and recommendations and the scheme has attracted significant interest from parents as well as an additional outline proposal from an interested party looking to put a Free School on the Askham Bar site.
As well as receiving the views of the public meeting organised by the Micklegate councillors and other submitted views, the Executive felt more time was needed and so deferred the decision on which proposal to proceed with at its last meeting. As part of the administration’s commitment to listen to residents, its February meeting is now set to be asked to move to a formal consultation so more can be done on considering views.
Executive member for Children and Young People Cllr Jenny Brooks said ‘After seeing the strength of residents’ feelings on the issue of places we decided to defer our January Executive decision to February. After taking further views on board and receiving a number of communications from affected people I believe we must go further. I have therefore asked officers to bring forward plans for a formal consultation on the issue and I will be asking Executive colleagues to support this at our February meeting. This will give us a longer and fuller opportunity to consider views on this important matter.