Sir – Councillors Hannaby and Stock are quite right in highlighting the schools places crisis in the Wantage and Grove area but the situation is actually worse than your article suggests.
At primary level the eight per cent over-subscription not only has an impact on those failing to get places in local schools but on the schools and current pupils themselves as they operate at near full capacity in contradiction to Government guidelines.
At secondary level the county council identified three years ago that King Alfred’s will not be able to accommodate additional pupils and we will face transporting pupils to schools 10 miles away.
The solution? According to OCC, support the closure of KA’s East Site, cram the 600 students there into Centre site and ask for developer funding to expand primary education in......Grove!
Meanwhile our town councillors support the scheme stating that it’s a “brownfield site” and the district council deny there is a crisis.
Perhaps they just all need to get out more.
Andrew Crawford
Charlton Road
Wantage
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