ANOTHER 50 or so revision documents were added to the application to relocate Hexham Middle School to the Queen Elizabeth High School site shortly before the planning decision will be taken.

Hexham’s residents might be forgiven for thinking that the developer was trying to avoid full public scrutiny.

From the very outset Northumberland County Council’s support for the colocation option, as promoted by Hadrian Learning Trust, has made it seem like a ‘done deal’.

Yet the proposal is contrary to many of its own planning policies. The allocation of £37m of public funding to the project at the same time provides the much-needed new school buildings.

But have we all been misled into believing that school facilities will only be rebuilt if this co-location goes ahead? There were other options.

This one brings the county council the potential for a windfall from selling off the middle school site for housing. That would add to the density of housing estates at Hexham’s east end, while simultaneously removing one of its very few community assets.

Serious concerns have been raised by many, including Hexham Civic Society, about the wisdom of clustering schools at the west end. There will be a 50 per cent increase in students travelling to the high school site, which already has traffic problems. This will risk student safety due to the inadequate infrastructure.

Imagine a typical afternoon round the Whetstone Bridge Road area in future. Sixteen large buses, numerous smaller ones, along with sixth formers cars, all attempting to leave the school site, just as parents arrive to pick up their children and somewhere near a thousand other students, some as young as nine, begin their walk home.

HYDRO NEIGHBOURHOOD GROUP

Hexham