School merger may cost £3m
Shropshire County Council may be forced to pay out up to £3 million of its own cash to create a new school in a village near Shrewsbury after a bid for government funding failed.
Shropshire County Council may be forced to pay out up to £3 million of its own cash to create a new school in a village near Shrewsbury after a bid for government funding failed.
Recommendations to amalgamate the Oakland and Longmeadow Primary Schools in Bayston Hill will go before councillors at a meeting on Wednesday.
But extra funding bosses had hoped to secure for the project will not be given to the authority because the amalgamation did not "score highly enough on educational and social need".
A proposal to use money from the county council capital receipts and prudential borrowing will now also be put to councillors at the meeting on Wednesday.
Liz Nicholson, director of children and young people's services, said: "The Department for Children, Schools and Families has informed us that the bid for funding for the Bayston Hill amalgamation did not score highly enough on educational and social need.
"This is a problem we face in Shropshire when our schools are compared with others in more deprived areas. The council has around £8.45 million identified from the Government's Primary Capital Programme for the amalgamation projects, if cabinet gives them the go-ahead. A further £2.99 million was applied for to support the removal of surplus places, but the council may not receive all of that sum."