Wokingham Borough Council’s Liberal Democrat administration has failed to deliver new places and Sixth Form for Bohunt School after Liberal Democrat candidates made election promises that there would be a Sixth Form ready for September 2023.
At a meeting of the Council’s Executive, it will be announced that the original project is no longer possible owing to “significant inflation costs” caused by the Liberal Democrat administration’s delay in progressing the project.
The report due to be discussed at the Executive meeting offers little certainty for the school community, saying that the Council’s recommended way forward “cannot be guaranteed” even at this late stage.
Despite the Bohunt Educational Trust committing to increase their contribution to the expansion from £2m to £5m, the project is still not even expected to be ready in time for the new school year in September 2024.
The Liberal Democrat leadership were accused moving at a “glacial” pace by Conservative councillors last Autumn, and were warned their lack of action risked spiralling costs and the project not being delivered in time for pupils planning to start in September.
Wokingham Borough Council approved the expansion of Bohunt School to create a separate Sixth Form, 30 extra Year 7 places and extra Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) places in March 2022, following years of campaigning by local Conservative councillors.
This announcement that there will be no Sixth Form in September leaves pupils with an uncertain scramble for places elsewhere.
At a Council Meeting on 20th October 2022, the Liberal Democrat Executing Member for Schools and Children’s Services, Cllr Prue Bray, said three times that she was committed to the new Sixth Form at Bohunt School – but implied it was a low priority for the Council saying, “there is quite a lot of other things going on in Children’s Services…”
Currently, children attending the Bohunt School continue their education at other schools and colleges outside the Borough, some as far afield as Farnborough. The expansion would have allowed them to remain within the Borough, closer to home and with shorter distances to travel.
Bohunt School, delivered by the previous Conservative administration, was the first secondary school to be built in Wokingham Borough for half a century, and caters for pupils in the South of the Borough in largely rural areas.
Cllr Charles Margetts (Finchampstead North) said: “These pupils have been messed around and used by the Lib Dems as a political football. They were promised a Sixth Form would open this September during the election campaign just two months ago. After the election it was announced on social media by two Lib Dem councillors that the Sixth Form wouldn’t be ready after all.
“Now we hear the Sixth Form will go ahead but the buildings promised won’t even be ready for September 2024.
“Residents deserve better, children and teachers deserve better. My local Conservative colleagues and I have campaigned for years to secure this desperately needed extra provision for children from Finchampstead, Arborfield and Barkham. We will continue to push the Lib Dems to deliver expansion of this school.
“This failure to deliver on their promises means that children will be travelling unreasonable distances just to get to school. This will negatively impact on their education and will be cause parents a lot of stress.
Cllr Margetts continued, “The previous Conservative administration were on target to deliver the extra places by 2023. I repeatedly warned that the total lack of meaningful progress was letting down the whole school community.”
Cllr Graham Howe, Shadow Executive Member for Schools and Children’s Services, said, “This is all too little, too late from the Liberal Democrats. It is a significant disappointment to many pupils.
“If it wasn’t for the Liberal Democrats total lack of action and mismanagement of this project there would be a brand new Sixth Form opening at Bohunt in a matter of weeks. The blame lies entirely with the Liberal Democrat leadership who openly treated it as such a low priority.
“The Lib Dems have been in power for 14 months. They have failed children South of the Borough. The delivery of this project is going to take more than another year. Yet they left it until the eleventh hour just before the summer holidays, and oddly after the local elections, to tell children that the places wouldn’t be ready for this September with no thought to the stress and anxiety this would cause.
“The previous Conservative administration delivered the first school to be built in the Borough for half a century and we were on track to deliver the new Sixth Form. How can residents have any faith that the Lib Dems can deliver on any of their promises?”
