YP Letters: Welcome realisation of need for free schools

From: Coun Dan Cohen, Conservative, Shadow Spokesman for Children and Families, Leeds City Council.
New free schools have been approved for Leeds to the glee of Tory councillors.New free schools have been approved for Leeds to the glee of Tory councillors.
New free schools have been approved for Leeds to the glee of Tory councillors.

I WAS delighted to read your recent report that three new free schools are set to open in Leeds.

In a way, what was even more pleasing, was learning that “Leeds City Council has welcomed the announcement and will help to deliver the scheme”.

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I, too, welcome the announcement and I’m relieved that the council has finally come to the realisation that free schools can form part of the solution to the school places crisis Leeds has faced in recent years.

It is a long overdue course correction from this administration. At times it has seemed to many as though the council was so opposed to the idea of free schools that it was prepared to ignore the school places issue, squeezing ever more students into bulge cohorts, and failing to grasp the reality that, to quote a council leader in London, “Free schools are the only game in town” when it comes to wanting a new school within a locality.

I hope that the council will now do all that is necessary, including working with free school providers, to plan more effectively and ensure we do indeed have the school places we need, where we need them.