Harrogate councillors have called for the reversal of closure plans for Woodfield Primary School as they also expressed fears that many more schools facing difficulties could follow in its footsteps.

A consultation on the proposed closure ended this week after the school failed to find an academy sponsor to take it over.

At a Harrogate Borough Council meeting on Wednesday, councillors spoke in support of parents and staff who say the school should stay open because it is a “vital” part of the community.

Councillor Philip Broadbank said it was “sad to see how a once thriving school now finds itself in this position”.

He added those “closely involved in the school feel let down by Ofsted, the government and its academisation policy”.

Councillor Broadbank said:

“A series of attempts have been made by hard-working, dedicated staff and there is a genuine desire to see this community facility stay open.

“Some people say the situation is being driven by an ideological academisation agenda which threatens the very future of more schools in North Yorkshire.

“Many schools are already in financial deficits and this is expected to get worse.”

Read more:

• Opposition councillors call for Woodfield school to be saved
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The government has outlined plans for all schools to join academies by 2030 in a nationwide expansion of the model which sees schools receive funding directly rather than through a local authority.

Academy-run schools are overseen by charitable bodies called trusts which have more freedom of areas such as pupil admissions.

Woodfield Primary School was rated as inadequate and put into special measures by Ofsted in 2020 before being ordered to find an academy sponsor.

However, the Regional Schools Commissioner was unable to secure a backer.

The school – which has seen pupil numbers fall from 154 to just 37 in four years – was then set to merge with Grove Road Primary School before the nearby school pulled out of the proposals.

Woodfield Primary School now faces the prospect of closing for good in December.

This comes at a time when Baldersby St James Church of England Primary School near Thirsk is due to close next month and governors at Fountains Earth CE Primary School in Lofthouse have recently requested a closure consultation.

Kell Bank Church of England Primary School in Masham also closed last year when its 200-year history came to an end.

Woodfield Primary School could close in December

For Woodfield Primary School, the next stage of the process will see North Yorkshire County Council’s executive meet on July 19 to decide whether to publish statutory closure proposals.

A further four-week consultation would then follow ahead of a final decision by the council on October 19.

Councillor Matt Scott, who represents the Bilton Woodfield ward, told yesterday’s meeting that while the school has had its “fair share” of challenges, he believes it should stay open because it now “benefits from really excellent staff and a quality governing body”.

He said:

“The school is a brilliant building – it is connected to an excellent library staffed by committed local volunteers. As a whole, the site is really a first class facility.

“It is right that this council sends a message to the education authority that there is a future here.”

A video sent to the Stray Ferret appears to contradict Harrogate Borough Council‘s claim that its fleet of bin wagons can not accept wheelie bins for recycling.

Currently, residents in the Harrogate district use blue bags to recycle paper and card and lidless black boxes for tins, plastic and glass.

In some other areas of the country, people use large wheelie bins for recycling.

Today’s storm has once again see recycling left out for collection blown across streets, prompting some residents on social media to call on the council to introduce wheelie bins.

A spokesperson for the council said this month this was not possible. They said:

“Another challenge we would need to overcome is the wagons used for collection. At the moment they cater for black boxes so any change would require adaptation of the fleet.”

However, the video, which was taken in Harrogate this week and sent to us by a resident, shows council workers emptying recycling from black boxes into garden waste wheelie bins and then into the refuse trucks.

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There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the bin workers, who are clearly carrying out their jobs efficiently.

After showing the footage to the council, a spokesperson said it operated 10 bin lorries and only two could operate wheelie bins.

Writing today on the Bilton Community Group Facebook page, Matt Scott, the Conservative councillor for Harrogate Bilton Woodfield, explained why the council prefers to use black boxes over wheelie bins.

He wrote:

“When recycling is processed the clean plastic etc. is sold on with the money raised going into council services. Dirty recycling has to go to landfill as it can not be processed. In Harrogate less than one per cent of our plastic goes to landfill. Much of this is down to us all cleaning the recycling before it goes into the box.

“Councils that use wheelie bins have much higher landfill rates often of around 15%. Recycling wheelie bins are often treated simply as bins with the contents not cleaned before being put in. This means higher costs for the council and more landfill waste. I do not want to see either of that happening locally.

“The issue is not as straightforward as it may seem. Any changes would require significant expense for the bins themselves though also changes to how it is collected. This may mean new vehicles, changing routes and working patterns for existing refuse collectors. Any change to bins I would expect to be trialled first in certain areas to see if our excellent plastic purity rates are maintained. If they are not we would be spending money to lose even more money and send more to landfill.”

North Yorkshire County Council said today there was no confirmed start date to demolish and replace a footbridge near Harrogate’s New Park roundabout.

The council previously said work would begin in January to replace Oak Beck Bridge, which it says is in poor condition.

The A59 road on which the bridge is situated is heavily used by traffic, especially by people visiting Aldi, B&Q and Pets at Home on the Oak Beck retail park.

The volume would increase if Tesco is given permission to build on the former gas works site nearby.

The council previously said work would take place from January until July this year and temporary traffic lights would be used throughout. The road will remain open to single-way traffic.

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On Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones’ Community News website, Matt Scott, the Conservative councillor for Harrogate Bilton and Nidd Gorge said last week a bridge engineer at the council had told him work would begin in April.

But a council spokesperson was unable to confirm this date when asked by the Stray Ferret and said the start date had yet to be confirmed.

Plans for the new Tesco include a petrol station, 200 parking spaces and a new roundabout on Skipton Road.

Conservative councillor Matt Scott has said he feels “privileged” to represent Harrogate at county level after his by-election win tightened the Tories’ grip on the town.

He was elected onto one of two Bilton and Nidd Gorge seats on North Yorkshire County Council on Friday.

His victory was a major blow for the Liberal Democrats, which had previously won six out of eight county elections in the area in the last 16 years.

It means the Conservatives have strengthened their power on the county council by lifting their total seats to 57 out of 72.

Speaking on Monday to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Scott said he was pleased with the result as he also set out his top priorities for his new term:

“My message to those who voted for me is the same as my message to those who did not vote for me – I am privileged to be able to represent the Bilton and Nidd Gorge division on the county council and will be pleased to help anyone who gets in touch with me.

“I am interested in positive outcomes, not the political allegiance of someone who has come to me for help.

“As a sitting district councillor I will continue to work hard on tackling litter and protecting our green spaces.

“In terms of county council issues I will be doing all I can to support Woodfield Community Primary School. I will also be taking a keen interest in sustainable transport issues as a means of tackling congestion.”

Cllr Scott, who already represents the Bilton Woodfield ward on Harrogate Borough Council and is employed as a caseworker for Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, joins Paul Haslam as one of two Conservative county councillors serving the area.

The by-election was held following the death of Liberal Democrat councillor Geoff Webber, whose party previously had a strong foothold during the last four elections.

Read more:

• Conservatives win Bilton and Nidd Gorge by-election
• Bilton Liberal Democrat candidate ‘very sorry’ after by-election defeat

Standing to replace him was Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Kempston-Parkes, who was second by a margin of 352 votes.

Mr Kempston-Parkes, a local businessman and former borough councillor, said he was “heartbroken and devastated” by the result but promised the party will come back “stronger than ever”. He said:

“I know we will continue the fight against this stranglehold on local politics – we are certainly not finished.”

Mr Kempston-Parkes also criticised the first-past-the-post voting system, which meant the Conservatives won with 43% of votes. He expressed hopes that other opposition parties could form an alliance to contest elections as one group in the future.

He said:

“Perhaps the Lib Dems, Greens and Labour need to come together and form a progressive way of working in order to give the electorate one clear choice.

“If that had been the case in Bilton and Nidd Gorge, the Conservatives would have come second, which is the really sad thing about this election – the majority of people didn’t vote for the person who won.

“As long as the parties in the centre and to the left continue to stand against each other then the Conservatives will continue to rub their hands in glee and rule in the majority when in fact they are the minority.”

The by-election held last week was the only local council election held in the Harrogate district.

A full election for all seats on North Yorkshire County Council was scheduled to take place but was cancelled because of the ongoing local government reorganisation.

Under the plans, elections to a new unitary council structure – which will replace the current two-tier system in North Yorkshire – could happen in 2022 depending on government approval.

The Bilton and Nidd Gorge by-election results in full are: