Liberal Democrat's surprised by errors over King Edward VII pupil numbers

1.09.51pm GMT Wed 10th Feb 2010

Liberal Democrats have reacted with surprise that the number of pupils expected to enter secondary schools in Melton has reduced by 390 children since the original projections in 2005.

Simon Galton, Lib Dem Leader on Leicestershire County Council said:

"This reduction is very significant and is bound to influence the decision on whether King Edward is closed. From the report to the CYPS Scrutiny Committee on Monday, it appears between 2005 and 2009 a loss of nearly 400 predicted pupils occurred. Moreover the new projections are based on 50% of pupils from new housing (including the Melton SUE) but if these houses don't materialise the position could be even worse and the loss could increase to around 460 pupils. Questions now need to be asked and what we want to know is at what point did the Cabinet Lead Member Ivan Ould become aware of the situation?

If Cllr Ould knew about these numbers prior to the decision on the Melton reorganisation in March 2007 why was this information not available to Councillors, parents and the Melton community at the time key decisions were taken?

What is really surprising is that Cllr Ould is still clutching to the notion that there are enough pupils for Melton's schools. But this assumes that parents opt to send their children to the three Melton schools in even numbers which was never going to be case once a single catchment area was established."