What this will cost us all!

Please read on even if you think this won’t affect you.

A number of people have been in touch covering the same point. The view is that Cumbria County Council HAVE to force through the Academy in order to cover the compensation money from the unequal pay claim.

The view is that the massive amount of land behind the Thorncliffe site would be sold off to developers. One site runs from Thorncliffe Road right up the back of Hawcoat Lane almost up to Quarry Brow, 6 Acres of playing fields plus other land. The other site covers land from Thorncliffe Road to the housing development that was built on the old Oxford block of Thorncliffe. The sale of this land will cover the £40 million hole that the compensation claim put in the County budget plus quite a bit more in the pot for schemes all over the County.

The original Academy sponsor had involvements in developing land and this issue was brought up when the project first came to light. Promises have been made that this is not the case, the land could not be used for this purpose and the like, but it would appear that they are false promises in order to get the project under way.

The two site academy debate did put an end to such talk for a while but it does not stop the argument at all.

Plans for a two site Academy have not been formally proposed, so nobody really knows what land would be freed up.

In reality the two site option was only pushed forward by John Hutton in order to try to save his seat. The debate was cleverly moved from which of the 5 options should be chosen to should we have a one site or two site Academy, totally bypassing the debate about which option to choose.

The truth is the ideal situation, if it is forced on us,  would be a one site Academy. People are torn between saving each site so they want a split, but deep down most realise that the sensible way would be to bring all parties together in one place.

That then leads us to what will happen to the land left over? The land belonging to all of the schools is in the hands of the Academy and sponsors. This basically takes us full circle back to the County Council. What have they done with such sites in the past?

Thorncliffe Victoria Block: Housing

Thorncliffe Oxford Block and Fields: Housing

Risedale Annexe: Housing and commercial Development

Holker Street School: Commercial Development

St Marys Annexe: Housing

Parkview Canteens: Housing

West Shore Site: Parts now Housing

Infant School off Lesh Lane? Housing (forget the name)

We may have missed some, but you get the picture, the scene is already set. On the original one site plan we were told that the new build would be put towards the front of the Parkview site, obviously it needs to be on a different footprint to the existing buildings, yet the site of the current buildings would also be sold off.

 Barrow Council cannot be trusted, the County Council is even harder to get through to. We are not sure how to stop the plans. We are doing our best to get information out that the Mail is suppressing but we can only keep people informed. We have put up links for groups to get together and contact each other, more than that we do not know what else to do.

Incidentally although we aim to be unbiased, this subject seems a no brainer for us to support. Of all of the messages of support and the like we have not yet received one in protest. From the start we said we would give a balanced argument and post all sides. Thus far we have had NO messages of support for an Academy to open in September. We have had some saying if it is done right and not rushed through then it will be accepted and we have supported this view.

We do wonder about some points, as the sign off of funds has not yet happened.

Who is paying Doug Blackledge £2,500 a week?

Who has funded the uniform?

Where the hell is this money coming from basically?

When we have these answers a LOT will become clear, we suspect but do not know for sure, that it is the Council Tax payer. If that is the case then two and a half of us a week are paying a years Council Tax for a Principal we do not want. For the next three years every household is throwing £85 a year towards the wages of the top managers in this one School. Maybe that will make people with no interest start to take notice. This affects each and every one of us!