Agenda item

Report CSD21121

On 22^nd September 2022, the Executive approved the recommendations made in a report on the Harris Kent House Free School.

The decision was called in by Councillors Simon Jeal, Angela Wilkins, Josh King, Kathy Bance, Ian Dunn and Vanessa Allen. This Committee was requested to consider what action should be taken in response to the call-in of this decision; the options were to refer the decision back to the Executive for re-consideration, or to take no further action on the call-in, in which case the decision would stand and could be implemented without any further delay. 

Following a request from the Chairman, the Head of Strategic Place Planning outlined the process for the approval and delivery of the free school.

The Harris Federation had made an application for the school through the Department for Education’s sponsor led free school route. The school was approved in 2017 as part of Wave 12 of the programme and was originally intended to meet need in Bromley and Lewisham. The proposals were now focused on addressing Bromley’s requirements. Once a free school application has been approved there was no DfE process to consult on the chosen sponsor.

The Head of Strategic Place Planning explained that once a school had been accepted into the Department of Education’s programme the Council’s input into the process was limited to 3 key areas; consultation on the need for school places; discussion about the provision of possible sites and the determination of any planning application. The DfE were responsible for the development of detailed proposals and for taking schemes through the planning process. The process followed for Kent House was the same as the other 6 sponsor led free schools already delivered in Bromley. In line with the DfE’s process local residents would have two opportunities for consultation: on any planning application brought forward by the Department for Education in relation to the scheme; and on the trust’s consultation to determine whether the DfE should enter into a funding agreement for the school.

The Chairman set out the various Committee processes through which the Harris Kent House site had been considered. This included discussion at a number of meetings of the Local Development Framework Advisory Panel  and the School Places Working Group, a sub-committee of the CEF PDS, in 2019, 2020 and 2021.  The Chairman noted that no Members of the Labour Group had attended the meetings of the School Place Planning Working Group in 2020 and 2021, despite invitations being extended.

The Committee noted that the proposals had received detailed attention and scrutiny.  This stage of the process was not concerned with the detailed design of the proposals as it would be for the DfE to now undertake a full feasibility and submit a planning application in due course. The Council would not enter into any property transaction until after these matters had been completed.

In response to a question from Cllr Jeal concerning the opportunity to consider other sites, the Head of Strategic Place Planning set out that the Kentwood site’s allocation for a secondary school had been determined through the Council’s Local Plan adoption process that had included both public consultation and a public inquiry. Any proposal for an alternative site would need to make a very strong special circumstances argument for education use as the Kentwood site had been allocated for use as a secondary school with the adopted Local Plan.  

Councillor Jeal, one of the signatories to the call-in, explained that one of the reasons behind the decision for call-in was that the report had not been publicly available at the last Children, Education and Families PDS meeting in September.  There was agreement that there was a need for a secondary school in the area however, locally there were concerns around the detailed plans and Ward Member engagement with residents had highlighted concerns that needed to be addressed in order to avoid an inappropriate development.  One of the key concerns of residents was that the proposed development was too big.  The planning process afforded a truncated list of grounds for approval whereas the Council’s current position as freeholder afforded additional powers to those available through the planning process.  The reality was that as freeholder the Council currently had greater flexibility to negotiate with the Harris Federation and consult with residents than would be available through planning processes.  The Member cited previous issues with development at Stewart Fleming school and argued that waiting for a planning application to be submitted by the DfE would be too late and that these issues should instead be reviewed as part of the feasibility study.

The Vice-Chairman expressed concern that the lines between the planning process for a school and the need for school places were being blurred.  The Head of Strategic Place Planning confirmed that the Local Plan established the framework for consideration of a development and until the DfE submitted fully developed proposals it was very difficult for the Council to respond.  The Committee noted that planning proposals for schools were often controversial and there were a number of competing issues that needed to be balanced.  Where the Council became aware of local concerns, these were raised with the DfE.

The Leader of the Labour Group and signatory to the Call-in raised the following three issues.  Firstly, in terms of transparency, there had been significant concerns around the absence of Part 1 (public) papers at the meeting of the Children, Education and Families PDS Committee on 14 September 2021.  It was stressed that Officers provided a recommendation as to whether an item should be discussed in Part 1 or Part 2 of the agenda, but it was for Members to decide and vote.  Secondly, in relation to the Local Plan, objections had been raised about the size of the Kent House site and its suitability for a secondary school at meetings of the Local Development Framework Advisory Panel.  Finally, in relation to planning issues, Cllr Wilkins highlighted that she had attended the September meeting of the Executive where another similar issue concerning a land transaction for a school had been considered.  At that meeting a request had been made that the two schools were treated the same.  Cllr Wilkins sought clarification that the negotiations on the lease for Kent House would be entered into subject to any planning application.

Members of the Committee questioned exactly what part of the decision taken by the Executive was being called-in.  It was noted that the report to the Executive had asked Members to note the progress made and endorse a move to heads of terms.

A Member noted that during the Local Plan processes, Members had clearly been advised by Officers that the Local Plan process was the only opportunity to influence designation of education sites and the Local Plan consultation had been very thorough.  There was now a need for Members to consider the current position and wait for the next opportunity to influence further through Local Plan processes.

In bringing the debate to a conclusion, the Chairman confirmed that she had not heard anything which had made her consider that the decision taken by the Executive in September was unsound.  Consequently, the Chairman proposed that no further action be taken on the Call-in.  The motion was seconded by the Vice-Chairman, put to the vote and CARRIED.

RESOLVED: That no further action be taken in respect of the Call-in.