Northumberland County Council education bosses insist Berwick schools project remains on track

The local authority has committed to a £45million investment in the partnership that will see a move to two-tier education as well as the construction of a new school to replace the existing Berwick Academy.

However, the projects have been dogged by strike action and uncertainty over funding from central Government. Speaking at Thursday’s meeting of the council’s family and children’s services scrutiny committee, head of school organisation Sue Aviston addressed concerns around the delivery.

She said: “It is important for scrutiny to understand we’re not taking our foot off the gas. We have been ploughing forward and we’re seeing significant work ongoing.

“Work at four first schools to create primary schools will require planning permission as they need extensions. We expect them to be submitted next week.

“With Berwick Academy, the outline business case is being developed. It is a really challenging site, it’s on what is probably the steepest building in the county to have a building on.

“It’s even more challenging than the Hexham site was, and it’s really testing the architects. We’re still aiming to get to cabinet with a business case before the end of December, but that’s subject to the Department for Education and their engagement.

“We are looking to get a date in the diary for Government funding.”

Strike action in the area’s middle schools disrupted the summer term with a number of walkouts over planned redundancies and the method of recruiting existing staff for the new model. However, a final day of action prior to the summer holidays was suspended following positive talks – although union bosses refused to rule out further action this term.

Speaking on the strikes, Ms Aviston added: “We have made some really good progress and industrial action was called off. I have already met with unions over the summer and have a more formal meeting next week, so that engagement is ongoing.”

Berwick North’s Tory councillor Catherine Seymour was pleased with the progress made.

She added: “It is a slot of work, it’s affecting seven schools, three in my ward alone. We’re also going from a three tier to a two tier system, it’s huge.”