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Last-ditch legal bid to halt schools merger
LEGAL action is being launched in a last-ditch bid to halt the merger of two Sheffield schools, campaigners confirmed today.
Lawyers acting for a parents’ group at Wisewood School are pressing for a judicial review of the way the long-running saga has been handled by Sheffield Council.
A vote to merge Wise-wood with Myers Grove School at Stannington was taken at the end of July, reversing a previous council decision to halt the process - which was backed by opposition Liberal Democrat members.
Wisewood parents’ campaign group Save Our Community Schools - SOCS - has confirmed it is now pressing on with legal action against the council in a bid to halt the merger once again.
Lawyers will be arguing that the council's decision to go ahead with the plan was unlawful and irrational, as there should have been a new consultation on proposals to secure the future of both schools.
SOCS also claims the original consultation over the merger was highly flawed, and is now out of date.
Ruling Labour councillors believe Wisewood and Myers Grove must close and be replaced with a new school on the Myers site, to cut surplus places caused by falling pupil numbers in the north west of the city. But SOCS insists that pupil numbers are not falling at Wisewood, as the school is again full this year, adding that a rise in birth rates in the school’s catchment area is predicted.
SOCS is holding fund-raising initiatives to pay for the legal action, including a sponsored walk around Hillsborough Park.
The trek on October 20 will go twice round the perimeter of the park, a distance of about two miles - equivalent to the distance many pupils from the Wisewood catchment area will have to walk twice a day if they have to go to Myers Grove.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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