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Council admit school merger plan mistakes
MISTAKES were made during consultations over controversial plans to merge two Sheffield secondary schools, a council report admits.
Proposals to merge Myers Grove and Wisewood secondaries, with a new school to be built on the Myers' Stannington site, were agreed by the council Cabinet after one of the most extensive public consultation exercises carried out in the city for many years.
Many protesters continue to oppose the scheme, which will leave the Hillsborough area without a secondary of its own.
And a secondary row has blown up over related plans to change primary catchment areas for schools feeding Bradfield and the new school, due to open in 2011.
This has yet to be resolved - as have amended plans to build a 14 to 19 learning centre on the Stannington site.
A report to a council scrutiny board admits that lessons need to be learned from the whole affair, which sparked fierce opposition from parents in Wisewood and around the surrounding community.
Many parents throughout insisted education chiefs were only putting one option forward for debate, and that the Wisewood closure was an inevitable 'done deal'.
But Sheffield's Executive Director of Children's Services Jonathan Crossley-Holland said the consultation process was genuine and argued that neither parents or opposition councillors had come with any logical alternatives.
In the scrutiny report, officers admit that in future similar situations it must be more clearly explained that consultations could result in a number of different outcomes.
But they defend their decision not to offer alternative plans or present a 'blank sheet', as consulting on just one preferred option 'showed a clear lead'.
The report also admits the timing of the announcement of the merger proposals was 'unfortunate'.
The plans were revealed just a week after the deadline for parents choosing secondary school places for September 2007 had passed.
This meant parents may have chosen Wisewood, not having any inkling there was a question mark over its future.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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