At the heart of this latest attempt to impose a new education system on the Ponteland community is an admission by the County Council of the failure of their plans for a massive, all age “super school” for over 2,500 students on just one site at Dobbies roundabout. Not only was a single school encompassing ages from 4 up to 18 on the one site seen to be inappropriate but it would have broken up communities, caused extreme congestion and was inaccessible, being two to three miles away from village centres. The Ponteland County Councillors warned against this madness from the start and welcome this fundamental climb down from the County Council.

Conservative Coun Peter Jackson representing Ponteland South and Heddon said, “There are still many important issues which have yet to be resolved by the County Council and the four Ponteland County Councillors have not been given any satisfactory response.

So, if the County Council’s aim is to drive up educational standards, why are they closing the one school which has been classed as “outstanding” for many years by Ofsted?

This latest plan from the Council determines to build the new schools on valued Green Belt land. Yet it is far from clear that there is any valid justification for breaching the existing Green Belt in Ponteland until the Inspection in Public determination of the much delayed Core Strategy plans in 2017.

The four County Councillors for Ponteland are furious that we have not been consulted in any meaningful way and that the Council is once again trying to impose its own plans. We cannot see why there is such an unseemly rush for this unprecedented upheaval. There is a real danger that the Council will be setting one school against another and community against community.”