Whitby Would Have to Wait "Decades" For a New Secondary School

Thursday, 20 April 2023 06:00

By Matthew Pells

The idea of building a new secondary school for Whitby has been given a reality check by council bosses.

Whitby would have to wait decades to get a new build secondary school.

That's the view of one of North Yorkshire Council's senior education bosses.

A proposal to close Eskdale School and Merge it with Caedmon college has this week been moved to the next stage.

There was a suggestion from local councillors that rather than use existing buildings to house the proposed merged school it might make more sense to build a new school school for the town.

North Yorkshire Council's Director of Young People's Services - Stuart Carlton - says that's not in the council's power.

North Yorkshire Council's Executive committee has this week approved a decision to publish official notices about the proposal to close the Eskdale School site, and move all pupils to the Caedmon College site. There will now be a further four week's of public consultation before a final decision is taken in June.

During the initial consultation on the proposed merger, Whitby Councillor Neil Swannick had suggested the idea of creating a new school building rather than moving all students to one of the existing sites.

Councillor Swannick says the existing secondary school buildings in the town are showing their age.

North Yorkshire Council's Director for Young People's Services - Stuart Carlton - says that although the council does have a budget for making repairs to school buildings it doesn't have the power or resources to create new schools from scratch and applying to government for a new school building would take decades.

Councillor Swannick is pressing for the idea of a new school building to be kept on the agenda.

Statutory notices will be published later this month relating to the proposed merger of the two schools, this will provide the opportunity for public feed back to be given over a four-week period up until Thursday, May 25.

A final decision is then due to be taken by North Yorkshire Council’s executive on Tuesday, June 20. If agreed, the schools will amalgamate from September 1st 2024.

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