Agenda, decisions and minutes

Purpose: To receive any Declarations and advise Members accordingly.

The following declared a personal interest on Agenda Item 4 ‘School Modernisation - School Standards and Reorganisation Act 2013 - YsgolLlanfynydd’ as they were governors of schools within the network:

The Chairman and Councillors Paul Cunningham, Peter Curtis, Hilary Isherwood, Dave Mackie, Vicky Perfect, Gareth Roberts, Paul Shotton and Nigel Steele-Mortimer.  Mr. David H?tch also declared a personal interest.

The following declared a personal interest on Agenda Item 4 ‘School Modernisation - School Standards and Reorganisation Act 2013 - YsgolLlanfynydd’ as they were governors of schools within the network:

The Chairman and Councillors Paul Cunningham, Peter Curtis, Hilary Isherwood, Dave Mackie, Vicky Perfect, Gareth Roberts, Paul Shotton and Nigel Steele-Mortimer.  Mr. David H?tch also declared a personal interest.

A decision of the Cabinet meeting on 19 April 2016 relating to School Modernisation - School Standards and Organisation Act 2013 - Ysgol Llanfynydd, has been called in.  Attached is a copy of the procedure for dealing with a called in item.

The Education and Youth Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator explained the procedure for the Call-in of a Cabinet decision.

To assist Members, the following documents are attached:-

·         Copy of the report of the Chief Officer (Education and Youth) - School Modernisation - School Standards and Organisation Act 2013 - Ysgol Llanfynydd

·         Copy of the Record of Decision

·         Copy of the Call In Notice

That, having considered the decision, the Overview & Scrutiny Committee is satisfied with the explanation which it has received, and it is in order for the decision to be implemented.

The Call-in related to the decision of the Cabinet from its meeting held on 19 April 2016 relating to School Modernisation - School Standards and Reorganisation Act 2013 - Ysgol Llanfynydd.  The Call-in notice had been signed by four Members of the Council.  To assist Members, the following documents had been circulated with the agenda:-

(a)     A copy of the procedure for dealing with a called-in item.

(b)     A copy of the report considered by Cabinet on 19 April 2016.

(c)     A copy of the Cabinet Record of Decision No. 3254.

(d)     A copy of the Call-in notice signed by Councillors Hilary Isherwood, Dave Mackie, Nigel Steele-Mortimer and Alison Halford.

Whilst Councillor Chris Bithell understood the concerns of those affected by the proposal to close the school, he spoke about the difficulty in reaching decisions such as this, in light of the reduced funding from central Government.

The Chairman invited the Call-in signatories to address the Committee.

Councillor Hilary Isherwood read out the reasons for the Call-in as set out in the notice.  She spoke about the consequences of school closure upon the community and pointed out that the range of adaptations to the school benefited children with special medical needs and were not available at other schools in the vicinity.  She said that incorrect data had been used to report the capacity for the school, as identified in the Objection Report and did not reflect the reduction in capacity arising from changes to the school in 2011.  She referred to page 21 of the School Organisation Statutory Code on determining the capacity of enlarged school premises, and questioned the reasons for the statutory proposals given the criteria set out.  She went on to state that at 66, Ysgol Llanfynydd had the 7^th highest capacity in Flintshire and should therefore not have been included in the first round of proposed closures, which would have allowed time to work on increasing school numbers.  Other sections of the Code were also highlighted, including the duties on local authorities in determining proposals where objections had been made.

In respect of costs, Councillor Isherwood pointed out that the efficiency stated would be a one-off and she questioned the need for a roof replacement on the school building, adding that future maintenance costs had not been taken into consideration for other schools.  In addition, she said that there had been no response to the issue on income generated from solar panels and that a viable business case for a reduced budget for the school had allegedly not been appropriately considered.  In terms of process, she pointed out that the statutory notice should have been issued to the school’s governing body despite regular contact by the Chair of Governors with the 21^st Century Schools’ team.  She stated that the school had been given a Category 2 ‘yellow’ rating by GwE with capacity for improvement and that the comments made by Estyn in the consultation report were out-of-date as the school had last been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

There were three members of the press and four members of the public in attendance.