I HAVE every admiration for Simon Spiers and his team at King Alfred’s Academy who, despite the challenges of a split-site school, a difficult financial environment and uncertainties locally over future pupil numbers, have improved the school to the extent that it is now rated outstanding by Ofsted.

I have every respect also that he is entirely open in admitting that the proposed development of the East Site is driven solely by the need to raise finance.

I also accept that there may be fundamental uncertainties which impact long-term planning: when and if the Grove Airfield development and its mooted secondary school will go ahead and where the £6m of developer contributions for secondary education arising from Crab Hill will be directed.

However, the reaction of the town council in considering the application to build 150 houses on the site is little short of lamentable.

At their planning meeting last week I raised a variety of material planning issues which were totally ignored by our elected representatives.

Aside from the local concerns of residents in the immediate vicinity about density, local traffic, overlooking and car parking provision, etc, there are matters which will impact Wantage much more widely which the town council chose to entirely ignore.

We seem to have failed to learn the lessons of the closure of Garston Lane Primary School, which has left our remaining primaries creaking at the seams and resulted in the need to bus children many miles to school.

With the existing 600 pupils at the East Site and an estimated 350 more from known developments such as Crab Hill being relocated into the remaining two sites there is a real danger that we will reach capacity locally, at least in the interim.

This is not just my view but that of the county council which has issued a report which raises the concern that secondary pupils may have to be bussed to other schools as early as 2016/17.

Equally importantly are the traffic implications of concentrating so many additional pupils at sites where vehicular access is already difficult and where more journeys will need to be made across the centre of town with all its well known pinch points.

Rather than flag up concerns, the town council seems to have just rolled over and waved this development through. Selling half the family silver to maintain the rest is an understandable short-term expedient but may not be the best long-term solution.

One thing is for sure, once the East Site is built on, we have lost it for good – not just for the current generation but for all those to come.

ANDREW CRAWFORD
Charlton Road
Wantage