Reform's plans to scrap £63m high school in limbo

An artist's impression of the proposed school on Newtown Road

Plans to scrap the building of a new £60m high school are in limbo - after Reform was voted down by opposition councillors.

Long-standing proposals have been drawn up to build the school on land off Newtown Road in Worcester, but the local authority's Reform leadership said spiralling costs meant it favoured expanding intake at existing schools.

However in a full council meeting Labour, Lib Dem, Green and Conservative councillors teamed up to oppose the scrapping of the school, leaving the project's status uncertain.

Reform councillor Rob Wharton, the deputy leader, said: "We don't have the money to actually build it, that's the problem."

The plans were drawn up by the previous Conservative administration, but the costs have risen in recent years, with latest estimates at £63m.

Reform, which took control of the authority after the May elections, want to expand capacity at several high schools in Malvern and Pershore instead, with the extra places made available to Worcester children.

At the full council meeting, Reform was seeking support to cancel £33m of borrowing and write to the Department for Education to officially scrap the plan, only to be voted down.

Reform's Rob Wharton says the local authority does not have the finances to build the school

Conservative councillor Karen May said: "It's too premature to be making this decision.

"We know there's going to be real demand for school places in the future, across the whole of Worcestershire - we need to draw up a proper plan for education for the whole county."

Lib Dem councillor Josh Robinson said: "All I hear from Reform is 'build the infrastructure first' then everything else, like the housing, later.

"Yet here we are, with the chance to do something like this and they are trying to cut it."

Other councillors hit out at the prospect of Worcester children having to travel on buses to other areas for a high school education, saying it would put them at a disadvantage.

'We don't have the cash'

Reform councillors say they have no intention of pressing ahead with the school proposal, despite being blocked from officially being able to scrap it.

Because the party is running the council as a minority administration, it can be defeated on key votes like the school debate.

• Listen on BBC Sounds: Deputy leader says council is 'running out of cash'

Reform's Stephen Foster, cabinet member for education, said: "Cancelling the school would contribute to our savings plan, in order to maintain the future viability of this council."

After the meeting Mr Wharton, cabinet member for finance, said: "There's nobody on the Reform party who wouldn't like to build a shiny new school, we would - but fundamentally we don't have the cash."

He said the matter would return for a debate at a full council meeting early next year.