Minister visit demanded

7:21am Fri Jul 16, 2010

Bingham’s MP has called for a Government minister to visit Toot Hill School over the axing of the Building Schools For The Future scheme.

Toot Hill School, Bingham, was scheduled for improvements as part of the Rushcliffe section of the scheme, which was due to start in 2017.

At a meeting on Monday, the MP for Bingham, Mr Patrick Mercer, met with Nottinghamshire County Council’s Building Schools For The Future director, Mr John True.

Mr Mercer said he had been told by Mr True that Toot Hill was in a disgraceful state and was in a worse condition than The Grove School, which would have been one of the first schools in Newark to benefit from the scheme next year.

Mr Mercer said: “Toot Hill is in need of a rebuild more urgently than some of the schools in Newark.

“I was shocked to hear how bad Toot Hill was. It is one of the worst schools in the county in terms of fabric and I will certainly make sure it gets attention.”

Mr Mercer was promised a ministerial visit by the children’s minister, Sarah Teather, in response to a direct request on Monday for the Secretary of State for Education, Mr Michael Gove, or one of his ministers, to visit schools in Newark to see the situation for themselves.

A date for the visit has not been confirmed, nor which minister will attend but Mr Mercer said he would strongly suggest Toot Hill was on the list of schools to be visited.

The school’s head, Mr John Tomasevic, said the support Mr Mercer was showing for the school was welcomed by the governors and staff.

“Having seen the building at The Grove School I can testify its quality is very poor and in urgent need of redevelopment but we have similar areas of our school building that would qualify under the same criteria,” he said.

“Regrettably, the criteria for selecting schools was based on social deprivation factors rather than on the quality of the building, which was to the disadvantage of schools like Toot Hill where the standard of building was at least as poor as those who had been selected for a new build.”

The county council’s cabinet member for children and young people, Mr Philip Owen, said he had asked officers in his department to carry out work to review the entire school estate and present him with a list of the worst elements of their school buildings.

He said: “I want to ensure our ongoing capital investment is focussed on dealing with sorting out our worst buildings in the most effective way.

“Ensuring our young people attend good schools remains a priority for this administration and we will work with the Government to ensure we focus resources where they are most needed.”