Get involved...
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting ECHONEWS to 80360, or email us Click here for details »
Wickford school hopes to expand
3:43pm Friday 4th January 2008
Comments (2)AN infant school is hoping to expand to boost its pupil numbers and create a playing field in a neighbouring park.
The governing body of Wickford CofE Infant school has approached county council bosses with plans to develop a 210-place primary school on its site in Mount Road.
It currently caters for 135 pupils.
Fears were raised by residents that the school hoped to expand into the nearby Wickford Memorial Park.
However, Karen Garlick, county council's planning and admissions adviser, said this was because the school hoped to use part of the park as a playing field. In an e-mail to Alan Ball, chairman of Wickford Action Group, she said: "There are presently no plans to relocate the school in the memorial park.
"The National Curriculum requirements for physical education at Key Stage 2 require schools to have a suitable size playing field, which cannot be accommodated at Mount Road.
"As part of their proposal, the school is investigating the possibility of leasing land in the memorial park from Basildon Council to use as a detached playing field.
"A public consultation will be undertaken if the county council decides to pursue the proposal further."
Your Say YourEcho
Wickman, Wickford says...
10:42pm Fri 4 Jan 08
Note how the Council spokesman says "There are presently no plans to relocate the school in the Memorial Park".
I bet they end up building a primary school there, then flog the current site to developers who will cram the space with flats.
In this section
- A127 Horror smash: Child dies
- Woman left homeless after flat fire
- Updated: Cyclist airlifted to hospital following crash
- A ray of light in Sue's sad story
- Patient dies of swine flu in south Essex
- Performance to melt the ice from school’s youngsters
- Rayleigh gas pipe work on schedule
- French lessons pay off on lunch trip to bistro
- College teacher under investigation for ‘affair’
- Cruise ship man wants to come home
Sponsored Links
Local Advertisers
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
Wickford Lass, By C of E School says...
5:00pm Fri 4 Jan 08
Also re PE in the local park - by the time the kids have got changed for PE and walked to the park for a lesson, it'll be time to come back ..... For some of the 4x4 car driven pupils, this will be the furthest they walk each day ... how can they then do a PE lesson too - poor things will be exhausted ... they'll need time on their Playstations to recover!!
Will the school also be sending ahead an inspection team ... someone will need to pick up the poo off of the field.