By John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter: Plans to build two new schools in Bath are being held up by the government, councillors have warned.
Bath and North East Somerset Council plans to demolish the former Culverhay School so that a new special school and an alternative provision school for vulnerable pupils at risk of permanent exclusion can be built on the site. The council will turn over the cleared site to the Department for Education to build and pay for the schools.
But despite having made a successful bid to the government, council cabinet member for resources Mark Elliot told councillors on February 25 that the council was still waiting for the government to confirm when it would release the funding. He said: “The more that’s delayed, the longer we will have to bear the costs of sending children out of area.”
The council has held onto the Culverhay site since Bath Community Academy closed in 2018 to save it for education provision. As of June 2024, holding onto the site had cost the council half a million pounds over the last three years.
Paul Roper, the council’s cabinet member for economic and cultural sustainable development, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the council still planned to demolish the school and clear the site, now planned to happen around August or September. He said: “We are taking a risk in knocking it down in that sense, but the council is having to fund some of this anyway because the DofE doesn’t pay for knocking it down or preparing the site.”
Although the school has closed, some buildings on the site are still in use as Culverhay Leisure Centre and Bath Hindu Temple. When the plan was announced last year, it was expected that most of the school buildings will be demolished in early 2025 but the building containing the Hindu Temple could be retained until July, to meet their requirements to move at certain times.
There will be 120 school places at the special school. The alternative provision school — to be called Sulis Academy and be a part of the Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership multi-academy trust — will have 55 school places. It will aim to support children and young people to rejoin mainstream schooling or towards employment.
Note from Harry Mottram: Culverhay School was built in 1956 as Westhill Boys’ school which evolved from the former West Twerton School as a Secondary Modern School and changed its name to Culverhay School in 1971 after the City of Bath changed the system from grammar schools and secondary modern schools from the age of 11 based on academic tests such as the 11+ exam to the comprehensive system. It became a mixed sex school in 2012 when it was rebranded as the Bath Community Academy which closed in 2018. Since then a number of ideas have been put forward including an adult education college – but now it appears the classic 1950s buildings with various additions will be flattened to make way for a school fit for the 21st century. Thousands of Bathonians will have mixed feelings about the plan as they will have many memories of their time at the school.
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