Northumberland school faces permanent closure as council meetings online

Public meetings at Northumberland County Council are to resume from next week – the first since the coronavirus restrictions began.
County Hall, Morpeth
 Picture by Jane ColtmanCounty Hall, Morpeth
 Picture by Jane Coltman
County Hall, Morpeth Picture by Jane Coltman

The authority’s family and children’s services committee and cabinet are both due to meet remotely on Tuesday, May 12, and they will be streamed live on the council’s YouTube channel – youtube.com/NorthumberlandTV

The last public meetings to be held were the cabinet on Tuesday, March 10, and the Tynedale and Ashington & Blyth Local Area Councils that evening and the day after respectively.

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Further local area councils had been scheduled for the following week, but were cancelled as social-distancing warnings came into play ahead of the full lockdown.

Next week’s meetings are likely to result in the demise of a rural Northumberland school being signed off, with the cabinet recommended to approve the closure of West Woodburn First School from this summer.

As previously reported, the school currently has no pupils, as there were just three pupils attending during the autumn, but they all moved elsewhere for the start of the spring term in January.

The cabinet agreed at its meeting in March to carry out formal consultation on the potential closure of West Woodburn, which is on the A68 to the south of Otterburn, following four previous consultations on its future.

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The five-week informal consultation which preceded that decision had received 10 responses, with nine of them supporting closure. The governing body of The River Rede Federationhad continued to back the school converting to a primary.

The statutory consultation resulted in one representation, from a member of the public, who is against the closure and raised a number of concerns about the process in a lengthy response.

However, the report to councillors concludes that without children, ‘it is clear that local parents do not have confidence in the educational provision at the school, whether or not that is founded on fact, and are unhappy with the federation of their community school with Otterburn.

‘Without the support of local parents, unfortunately West Woodburn First School is unviable.’

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The closure would result in an additional cost of £26,600 to the council’s school transport programme.

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