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31
Mar
New Knaresborough primary school may never be built due to falling pupil numbers
A planned £6 million primary school for Knaresborough may never be built due to falling pupil numbers.
North Yorkshire Council announced plans in 2020 to build schools in Northallerton and Manse Farm in Knaresborough to serve pupils from new housing developments.
Northallerton's opened in 2024, but work has not even begun at Manse Farm.
The Knaresborough school, which was expected to be run by Elevate Multi Academy Trust, was due to provide 210 places for pupils, with the capacity to be expanded to 420.
But although the school was supposed to cater for families on the new Manse Farm and Highfield Farm estates a mile from Knaresborough town centre, and hundreds of homes have been built, the council now says there are not enough pupils to justify the school.
Jon Holden, head of school organisation and transport at North Yorkshire Council, told councillors that current pupil figures were “not sufficient” for a new primary school in the area.
At a Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency meeting last week, he said:
The forecast for the number of pupils in Knaresborough has changed significantly since the development at Manse Farm and indeed other developments were first proposed.
In terms of that school, what we have said is that numbers are not sufficient to require a new school to be developed. But we have agreed with the Department of Education and Elevate Multi-Academy Trust that we will continue to monitor pupil numbers and bring a proposal forward if and when it is required.
Section 106 agreement
The new school at Manse Farm is subject to a section 106 legal agreement, which outlines what developers must pay to compensate for the impact of new houses.
The Stray Ferret published a series of articles on Section 106 agreements, including this one on Knaresborough's missing school, last year.
The Manse Farm Section 106 agreement includes a £2 million landowner contribution towards the school.
However, Section 106 sums are only paid in installments at 'trigger points' when a set number of houses have been built and occupied.
Jon Holden, of North Yorkshire Council
Mr Holden said in normal circumstances when a section 106 deadline for land or money has passed, the land will “revert to a developer”.
Cllr Peter Lacey, Liberal Democrat chair of the committee, asked Mr Holden whether there was therefore a “theoretical possibility” that there could be a “default decision” that no school is to be built due to the lapse of section 106 money.
Mr Holden said:
I didn't say that specifically, but theoretically of course that is a possibility. We continue to monitor numbers.
There is a decline in the number of pupils across the county and locally. In as much as that has changed since the school proposal was first made a number of years ago, that can change again.
However, the lack of progress on the school site raised concerns among councillors.
Cllr Robert Windass, a Conservative who represents Boroughbridge Claro on North Yorkshire Council, said:
I am getting quite a lot of pressure from Goldsborough Parish Council because parents that want to get their children into Goldsborough school because there is not the school at Manse Farm.
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