A new primary school in Cheshire which should have opened in September 2024 still hasn’t been built, while rural schools in the area are becoming over-subscribed, according to local representatives.
Planning permission was granted in June 2023 for the new 210-pupil Kingsbourne Academy on the Kingsley Fields development in Nantwich.
The school was due to open for its first class of 30 reception pupils in September 2024, but the local authority’s children and families committee was told at a meeting in November 2023 the opening would be delayed by a year because of legal, planning, and cost issues.
Councillors were told at the same meeting that building work was expected to begin by late spring 2024, with the school’s opening delayed until September 2025.
Building work has not begun, however, and a local councillor has said it was “vital” the school opened soon.
Cllr Becky Posnett (pictured) said: “I would like to see in the work programme some updates about the Kingsbourne School and exactly where we are up to on that.”
She added: “I’m very conscious that that is a school that we are expecting to come online, but there has been very little information about it so far.
“It is servicing a rural area and it’s vital, because other schools in my ward are getting quite overloaded, and there’s a lack of clarity as to what’s happening with the school.”
Council officers promised an update at a future meeting.
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