Plans for new special school backed by council leader

A special school serving Hull children looks set to move, despite protests.

Hull Council leader Steve Brady said he would be supporting the relocation of Bridgeview Special School at a cabinet meeting on Monday.

More than a thousand people have signed a petition against plans to end more than 30 years of residential education at Bridgeview Special School in Hessle, seven miles from the city, which was presented to councillors yesterday.

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However Hull Council, which leases the site from East Riding Council, wants to move children to a brand new school on the Bilton Grange estate, as part of a shake-up of provision for children with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties.

The plans will see just 35 residential places provided in future - less than half the amount currently provided at Bridgeview.

A second petition, signed by 240 people, against the building of a 30-place day school for primary age children on a site replacing Tilbury Primary School, in west Hull, was also presented to the meeting of Hull Council.

Coun Brady said he was in favour of the move but said the council would reconsider where to put the new primary school on Monday.

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Unions have criticised the move, saying it will lead to job losses and that residential care works better in rural or semi-rural locations. A report to the Cabinet says Bridgeview will be “overstaffed” as a result of the changes and governors will have to look at potential staffing reductions from December 31.

But Coun Brady said: “I’ve been and visited the site in Hessle - one the council doesn’t own it, secondly it needs massive renovation, and thirdly we have the opportunity to build brand new facilities.

“We have the money and we are actually going to be able to sort out our own problems in our city.”

According to the report, the proportion of children in Hull identified as having behavioural problems is significantly higher than the national average and statistical neighbours. In the past three years the gap has been growing at a higher rate than neighbours “generating a high financial cost...which is not sustainable.”

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Coun Brady said providing boarding for youngsters wasn’t necessarily the answer.

He said: “The kids I saw weren’t fitting into the general education system. A lot of them have emotional problems because they have horrible family lives - it is a desperate situation. Getting them to recognise their own responsibilities in society and their families, encouraging them along the right road to a good education (is the way forward.)

“We will still have some residential places but we don’t believe that ultimately that’s the answer. It is a very, very expensive way of coping with the problem.”

However Coun Brady said they’d reconsider the location of the new special primary school on the Tilbury site, after residents protested.

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Lib Dem councillor Claire Thomas said people living near the site on the Boothferry estate felt a new school was one too many. She said: “It’s just across the road from the new Christopher Pickering primary school and down the road from Sirius Academy, two new schools on a housing estate that wasn’t designed for lots of cars and car parking.”

Mother-of-five Joanne Gray, who raised the petition, added: “There’s houses all round it - it is just in the wrong area. We have enough schoolchildren with problems without bringing more onto the estate. We have two brand new schools and we really don’t want another school on the estate.”

The plans are part of the multi-million pound Building Schools for the Future programme, which also affects Oakfield School, a day school which also caters for children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.

Oakfield will also be moving to the newly-built school on Hopewell Road, on Bilton Grange, where there will be provision for 90 pupils, aged 9 to 16, as well as residential provision for 35 children.

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