Nothing ruled out over future of Shropshire schools

Shirehall leader Keith Barrow has today warned that Shropshire Council is "not ruling anything out" over the future of county schools.

The council has been consulting on a new vision for county schools to help tackle falling pupil numbers and funding shortfalls. It's cabinet will be considering feedback and the next steps to be taken when it meets on November 10. The issue will also go before the full council the following day.

The vision contains a revised set of principles and criteria for primary school organisation and new principles and criteria for secondaries.

For example a review of a primary school might be triggered if its surplus capacity exceeds 30 places or the condition of its buildings are not up to standard while in the secondary sector a review could be triggered by less than 600 pupils on roll or surplus places forecast to exceed 35 per cent over a three-year period.

The council has previously stated that it does not have a hit list of school closures but it wants to see much closer collaboration and sharing of resources, and possibly more mergers.

Councillor Barrow said: "We are looking in detail at the Comprehensive Spending Review which places the council in a very different place to where we were 18 months ago, and we have to look again at all services across the board, including education.

"However I want to strongly reaffirm my commitment to providing excellent education in Shropshire and we are working together with everyone in the county who has an interest in education, to look at new ways of doing this.

"This has involved an unprecedented amount of consultation."

Councillor Barrow said a cross-party group had been working on developing the vision.

He added: "While the difficult funding issues facing us mean that, at this stage, we are not ruling anything out, no decisions have been made on the way forward."

Councillor Barrow said that following next month's meetings, the council will continue to work with schools and "school communities", looking further at the challenges at a local level and possible solutions.

A further report will go to cabinet in early February.

By Dave Morris