THE LEADER of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) has expressed his concern that the ‘best of our youth’ are currently attending schools outside of the town.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting this week, Cllr Ken Rhatigan said: “Obviously, the education of our youth is vital to us all, and therefore any money that goes into schooling is vital.

“We cannot continue to see the best of our youth leave our borough to get their education. Many go to Winchester. In my area, many go to West Berkshire for their education.

“If we do not keep in our eyeline the need for better education and better facilities in our schools, I think we're missing a trick.”

The comments come in response to concern raised by Cllr Angela Freeman (Labour, Winklebury) that the infrastructure funding list being considered by members included the expansion of existing secondary school.

Cllr Freeman questioned if or why this was necessary, claiming that Hampshire County Council (HCC) had previously stated that Basingstoke had sufficient schooling places available. She also raised concern about the impact adding additional capacity to existing secondary schools would have on the progress of a promised school at the Manydown development.

She said: “I am seriously concerned that if we expand our secondary schools, that we have at the moment, this leads to the likelihood that the proposed secondary school on Manydown will be even longer before it's built, and then the residents of North West Basingstoke still don’t have a reasonable distanced secondary school to send their children too.

“Many children in Winklebury now have to take a bus half way across town to get to school and long travelling times are disadvantageous to students.

“I don’t know why we are allocating money to secondary school places that we have been told by HCC we don’t need. I see this as very short-sighted and I don’t think it will help the council and our residents’ children any time in the future. “

In response, Cllr John Izett, member for regeneration and property, said that the development of the Manydown School would be subject to the growth of the area.

“That’s ultimately in the hands of HCC but we are providing the land for a secondary school on Manydown and if we can make sure that the development of Manydown is accelerated and new homes are built, then I hope the new school will arrive sooner than Cllr Freeman fears,” he said.

The £1.2 billion development, which is one of the largest housing-led developments planned in the South East, is expected to begin on-site in late 2021.

Cllr Rhatigan also made clear that any expansion would not necessarily mean additional school places or building space, but could refer to the addition of a specialist Special Educational needs (SEN) or language provision unit.

He said: “We should always consider what will be the right expansion, not just in terms of numbers, but also in terms of facilities.”

Cllr Simon Bound, member for communities, culture and partnerships, added: “We know a number of our secondary schools have quite a lot of capacity within our buildings, but are not filling them with their admission numbers at the moment.

“We have raised this with the education authority, to assess this ready for the local plan review, so that we have our school places where our population needs them, so hopefully that comes out of that process.”