Land Search for site for Rugby Free Secondary School
Dear Education Funding Agency,
In your response of 10 June 2016 to Mr John Robson concerning your land search for a site for the Rugby Free Secondary School you identify Coton Park as a potential site for the school. Coton Park has been identified by Rugby Borough Council in their Rugby Borough Emerging Local Plan: The Preferred Option (December 2015) as suitable and available for housing.
You state that the EFA has determined that this site is however "unsuitable, unavailable or unfeasible" for a school.
Was this determination made by a committee or an individual? If the determination was made by a committee what is the name of the committee? It the determination was made by an individual at what level was it taken eg Chief Executive, Director, Assistant Director?
On what day was this determination made?
Yours faithfully,
Richard Allanach
Dear Mr Allanach
Thank you for your recent enquiry. A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information; the departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2016-0029893.
Thank you
Department for Education
Ministerial and Public Communications Division
Tel: 0370 000 2288
Dear Mr Allanach,
Thank you for your request for information in relation to the Rugby Free Secondary School Project which was received on 12 June 2016. You requested information about the decision to rule out the Coton Park site for the school and, in particular:
• Was this determination made by a committee or an individual?
• If the determination was made by a committee, what is the name of the committee?
• It the determination was made by an individual, at what level was it taken?
I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’).
The Coton Park site was assessed and rejected in October 2015 by the EFA Regional Property Lead for the North West and Midlands.
In addition to the information requested, it may also be helpful to provide some additional information about the decision not to pursue this site.
The Coton Park Site is a strategic site owned partly by A C Lloyd and Persimmon Homes. At the time that this was considered by EFA in October 2015, the site was designated Green Field. The two owners were formulating proposals which could be considered as part of a formal representation to change the site designation and its allocation within the emerging Local Plan.
After consultation with their planning consultants and talks with our own planning advisor, it was concluded that the earliest that a school could be delivered would be 2020/2021, if the long term allocation of the school site was to be promoted through the Local Plan in order to establish the principle of education use. The owners would not be in a position to commit to a deal until the end of the promotion of the site through the local plan and any potential master planning process to formalise a potential approach to development.
There are a number of stages and formal processes required to be met in order for any potential development proposal or site allocation to be promoted and adopted through the Local Plan. The principal stages are preparation, publication, draft proposal, submission, examination and adoption. Consultation is required at key stages of the process to address objections and amendments prior to the formal Local Plan adoption after examination from an Inspector. That plan then would need to go to consultation following which objections and amendments incorporated. Following an enquiry the Plan would finally be adopted.
At that stage of adoption, estimated to be Dec 2017 to March 2018, we would have been able to progress a ‘subject to detailed planning deal’ with the land owner for purchase. We would then move to secure detailed planning and build out the school with an estimated opening of 2020/2021. On large strategic sites we would be reliant upon the developer to provide the infrastructure of roads and services built out to our timescale. The timescale was such that it would not satisfy the immediate and pressing basic need in Rugby, which meant secondary school provision was required for September 2016, and the certainty of long term delivery was regarded to be high risk.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
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If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should make a complaint to the EFA by writing to me within two calendar months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original consideration of your request.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the EFA, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Yours sincerely,
Anita Hathaway
Correspondence and PQ Manager for EFA Capital
Education Funding Agency
Web: https://www.education.gov.uk<https://www.education.gov.uk/>
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Dear Education Funding Agency,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Education Funding Agency's handling of my FOI request 'Land Search for site for Rugby Free Secondary School'.
Whilst the response was very helpful and generous in providing additional information to that which was requested there was one straightforward request for information which was not answered.
On what day did the [Regional Property Lead for the North West and the Midlands] determine that Coton Park was not a feasible site [because it was a greenfield site]?
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...
Yours faithfully,
R Allanach
Dear Mr Allanach
Thank you for your recent enquiry. A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information; the departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2016-0032638.
Thank you
Department for Education
Ministerial and Public Communications Division
Tel: 0370 000 2288
Dear Mr Allanach,
Thank you for your further email.
We apologise for the oversight in our initial response and can confirm
that there were several conversations with various parties on 2 October
2015 which led to the final decision being made that we would not be
pursuing the Coton Park site. This decision by the Regional Property Lead
for the North West and the Midlands was confirmed to the Trust on the 6
October 2015.
In your email of 4 July you requested an internal review of how your FOI
request was handled. Given that we have now provided you with all the
information requested we will assume that you no longer wish this review
to take place, unless you contact us to state otherwise.
Kind regards,
Anita Hathaway
EFA Enquiry Service
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Julian Woolley left an annotation ()
The developers of Coton park AC LLoyd and Persimmon Home are not necessarily promoting Coton Park East through the Local Plan they are intending to submit a planning application Autumn 2016 (http://aclloyd.com/developments/coton-pa...) even though there is no allocation in the current Core Strategy. There is absolutely no reason why 4 hectares could not have been negotiated to form the site for a school and delivered by the EFA.
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R Allanach left an annotation ()
A note for clarification.
The EFA say that Coton Park was not feasible because it was a "greenfield" site. Coton Park is a greenfield site but it is not in the Green Belt. The site the EFA are proposing for development is also a "greenfield" site.