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Parents' legal bid to halt schools merger
PARENTS fighting to save their community school today took their case against Sheff-ield Council to the High Court.
A campaign group representing parents from Wise-wood Secondary is seeking a judicial review against a council decision which ratified plans to merge their school with Myers Grove in Stann-ington.
The Save Our Community Schools group - SOCS - issued an ultimatum to officers to halt the merger process, due to be completed in 2011.
But as no such action has been taken, a High Court hearing will today decide if the parents have a case.
The battle over the future of the two schools has raged for almost a year, but the Wise-wood parents show no sign of giving up the fight.
A final decision to go ahead with the merger seemed to have been taken in July, when one Tory and one independent councillor sided with the Labour group to force through the plans.
The decision reversed a previous vote in council in June, when the Lib Dems succeeded in halting the process.
The party then instructed officers to put forward a strategy which would secure the long-term future of both schools.
But officers instead insisted the merger was the right thing to do - and that millions of pounds of funding earmarked to rebuild schools across the city would be put at risk if the city defied government policy on cutting spare pupil places.
Barristers for SOCS will today argue that moves to press ahead with the merger are unlawful - because the council cannot legally return to the process which the June vote halted.
Legal giants Irwin Mitchell, who are acting for the parents, insist no merger can go ahead unless the whole procedure starts again from scratch – including a new series of consultations with parents.
SOCS also points out that, before the June vote, Labour councillors had been ready to set up an independent review of the whole situation - plans which were later quickly dropped.
It adds that the report subsequently ordered into the schools' future failed to fully explore all outcomes.
Group spokeswoman Lucy Fairest said she was very confident of a positive outcome from the court hearing.
A city council spokeswoman said: "We have not yet been served with court documents relating to this matter, so cannot comment on the nature of the application because we haven't been notified of the detail. However, we are confident that Sheffield City Council has acted properly and legally on this matter and we will be robust in our defence."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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