Decision details

Background

Sunny Bank Primary School was established on 1 September 2016 when Murston Junior school and Murston Infant School and Maintained Nursery amalgamated. The new primary school opened in the existing accommodation of both schools and it wasenvisaged that in the longer term the Local Authority would pursue opportunities to bring the school together on one site that was in the ownership of KCC and support the school’s operation as an all-through primary school.

The KCP 2019-2023 identifies the need for additional places in the Sittingbourne East primary planning area. The expansion of Sunny Bank Primary by 0.5FE was identified to meet this need. A full feasibility was commissioned in 2018 to relocate the infant department and Nursery to the junior department site and provide the infrastructure to expand by 0.5FE to a 2FE primary school. This ensures that there are adequate places for children from new housing that is already being built out in close proximity to the school, as well as the future financial viability of Sunny Bank.

The current infant department was originally established in the 1860s and additional buildings were added over subsequent years. The buildings are in poor condition and the cost of maintaining the infant school site in order to ensure the buildings are fit for purpose would be considerable. The Infant buildings are on a site that is in the ownership of a local Diocesan Trust that comes under Canterbury Diocese. The lease costs are in the region of £ 20,000 per annum and are currently paid by KCC as the school would not be able to meet these costs and remain viable.The most cost-effective option is therefore to relocate the infant department to the junior site which is in the ownership of KCC and is of a sufficient size to accommodate all the buildings required for a 2fe primary school plus nursery.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education is asked to:

(i)            Allocate £4.2M from the Children, Young People and Education Capital budget;

(ii)          Authorise the Director of Infrastructure in consultation with the General Counsel (Interim) to enter into any necessary contracts/ agreements on behalf of the County Council; and

(iii)         Authorise the Director of Infrastructure to be the nominated Authority Representative within the relevant agreements and to enter into variations as envisaged under the contracts. Variations to contract value to be no more than 10% above the capital funding agreed by the Cabinet Member without requiring a new Record of Decision.

This proposal is also subject to Planning agreement.