Merger plan for schools creates dilemma over sports facilities

EDUCATION chiefs are to launch a public consultation over what should be done with the site and buildings of a school which has been at the centre of a closure controversy.

Wisewood secondary school was earmarked for closure as part of Sheffield Council’s Building Schools for the Future scheme, which escaped Government cuts earlier this year.

Under the plan, Wisewood is to merge with the nearby Myers Grove School in a new building on the Myers Grove site in Stannington. It will be called Forge Valley School.

Parents whose children attended both schools launched a campaign to halt the merger but despite a long battle with the council, they were finally forced to give up the fight in 2008.

It is expected that Forge Valley will open in September next year, with all pupils leaving the Wisewood site permanently in July 2011. But that leaves officers with a vacant site.

Among the headaches this presents is that Wisewood School incorporates sports facilities that were built in 2004 to support the school’s designation as a specialist sports college.

Under that agreement the facilities, which include a fitness suite and a sports hall, also had to opened up for the use of the community.

The facilities are popular with residents and there is also a community office which is well-used, but when the school closes, the associated cash and staff will also be withdrawn.

Officers have been told by leading councillors that plans for the site must involve making money for the authority, possibly with the sell-off of some of the land.

Sheffield Council needs to find 23.7m, or 10 per cent of its total Building Schools for the Future funding as part of its agreement with the Government, and selling land will contribute to this.

But councillors have also reassured residents that they are determined to retain the sports facilities currently on offer, and have ordered officers to find a way of keeping them open.

The council’s spokesman for children and young people’s services, Coun Colin Ross, said: “Central to any decision about the future of the Wisewood School site will be the views of local people.

“We have made a firm commitment to including community use within the future of the site.

“Local people will have the opportunity to have their say in determining the future community use of the site and generating options for the cabinet to consider.”

It is expected that the public consultation on the future of the Wisewood site will be led by Sheffield Council’s central community assembly, which is made up of councillors and residents.

The suggestions made as a result of the process would then be put to Coun Ross and his colleagues on the council’s ruling cabinet, who could then approve or deny any request made.

Proposals for the consultation include a house-to-house questionnaire, two consultation events and specific meetings with groups who use the sports centre and other facilities.

The 20m scheme to close Wisewood School and merge it with Myers Grove had been on the drawing board for almost five years, but had drawn criticism.

One parent, Lucy Fairest, even tried to halt the council’s idea by taking it to judicial review, but late last month her claim that the authority had not carried out adequate consultation was rejected by High Court judge Mr Justice Stanley Burnton.

Education bosses said they were forced to merge the under-subscribed schools because doing nothing may have jeopardised 250m Building Schools for the Future funding for the entire city.