The Royal Borough's first free school gets cabinet approval for former Holyport Manor site

The Royal Borough has opened the gates to a proposed new free school on the former Holyport Manor site, subject to planning approval.

A proposal from Holyport Free School has been accepted after a meticulous process to examine six expressions of interest which came forward after the council put the invitation to the market place. Four of these were for schools and two for housing developments, although one of the housing developers offered to build a school as part of the scheme.

Each expression of interest was examined in detail by a panel of officers from education, planning, procurement and property - and Holyport Free School topped the scores with its proposal for a state-funded, non-selective day and boarding school for 500 pupils aged 11 to 19 years.

Places for day pupils will be free while boarders will pay a fee as is done at other state boarding schools, although there will be bursaries available.

Cllr David Burbage, council leader, said the selection process was both impartial and professional, involving officers from the relevant services with their respective experience and knowledge.

He said: "The council's commitment is for the Holyport Manor site to be used for educational purposes.

"The free school proposal offered the best outcomes for the Royal Borough in terms of educational benefits for our children and young people. It represents a £15m investment for a new school in the borough and will result in additional state-funded co-educational places and increased educational choice for residents.

"With primary school numbers rising rapidly across the borough there will be a future need for more secondary school places. The free school was the only state-funded proposal received by the council and will mean the council may not have to look to provide additional secondary accommodation itself - a significant cost saving to local council taxpayers."

The Holyport Free School was approved recently by the Department for Education (DfE) for opening in September 2014, initially for Year 7 (age 11) and Year 9 (age 13), subject to the department's full and rigorous final selection process. This will include asking the council formally for its views.

The successful bid to the DfE was a completely separate process to that undertaken by the council as the site owners.

Before the school can go ahead it will be subject to the borough's development control process and a planning application must be submitted in the normal way.

In keeping with the council's commitment to transparency and openness, the fullest possible details of the bidding and examination process will be made available publically, while respecting the confidential nature of some of the commercial information involved.

Notes:
The expressions of interest in using the former Holyport Manor site were discussed in part II of the cabinet meeting on 26 July. This was because of the commercial information contained in the expressions of interest.

How do you rate this information/service?