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Should Whitby have a Brand New Secondary School

A Whitby Councillor is calling for a new 21st-century school to be built for Whitby’s 11-18 year-old students.

As a public consultation continues on merging the towns existing secondary schools, Whitby County Councillor - Neil Swannick - is suggesting there may be a better long term solution.

Councillor Swannick thinks the current pupil numbers and financial pressures mean the merger is likely to happen, but suggests there might be a better option for the future.

A public consultation is currently underway on a proposal to close Eskdale School and merge it with Caedmon College from September 2024.

But Whitby Streonshalh County Councillor - Neil Swannick - is suggesting that there could be a better long term solution.

There would obviously be a number of significant challenges to building a totally new secondary school for Whitby, not least of which would be where it would be built and where the money would come from.

Councillor Swannick thinks there are viable sites in the town.

The Labour councillor says the money would need to come from government, Neil Swannick says he feels the town missed out on historical funding for secondary provision.

The proposal to close Eskdale School and merge it with Caedmon College came from the Whitby Secondary partnership who say falling pupil numbers and rising costs mean it's not feasible to continue running two sites in the town for secondary education.

North Yorkshire County Council approved a six week public consultation on the issue, which started on February 20th and runs until March 31st.

There will be two public meetings as part of the consultation at Whitby Pavilion, West Cliff, Whitby, YO21 3EN on Wednesday 8 March at 12.30pm and 6.30pm.

The closing date for responses to the consultation is 5pm on Friday, 31 March 2023.

All responses to the consultation received by this date will be considered by the new North Yorkshire Council Executive on 18 April 2023.

If the Executive decides to proceed with the proposal, then statutory notices would be published on 27 April 2023. These notices would provide a further four weeks for representations to be made, by 25 May 2023.

A final decision would then be scheduled to be taken by the Executive on 20 June 2023.  If agreed, the schools would amalgamate from 1 September 2024.

The consultation can be completed online at https://consult.northyorks.gov.uk/snapwebhost/s.asp?k=167542956340

North Yorkshire County Council have published background information at https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/proposal-amalgamate-caedmon-college-whitby-and-eskdale-school-1-september-2024

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