Louth: merged school will have 170 empty desks!

One the most impressive cases presented against closure concerns the Louth decision.

At the meeting to consider consultation results a couple of weeks ago, it was no surprise that there were nil votes in favour of closure of Eastfield Infants and Nursery with Lacey Gardens Juniors.

Between the two schools, there are said to be 244 surplus places right now.

The plan is to create one of the biggest primary schools in the country with 630 places.

But the official projections show that when the new school opens, it will still have 170 empty desks.

Remember that the reason for the planned merger is supposed to be to tackle surplus places...

If the plan is successful, less than a third of the surplus places will be removed.

The quality of protest and well-thought out alternatives presented today were impressive.

There was a ray of hope to defeat the plan when Conservative member for Louth Councillor Pauline Watson appealed to her colleagues to go back to the drawing board.

But she was over-ruled.

All 11 Conservatives with a vote, used it to push on with closure.

All 11 Labour, LibDem, Independent, church reps and parent governors voted against.

So chairman Group Captain Edward Bliss voted a second time to allow the plan to go ahead.

Another overwhelming victory!!

The quality of the Louth case against merger demonstrates that this one will run and run.