Growing school gets £6.5m investment

King Edward VI School in Morpeth has seen demand for its places rise in recent years

Councillors have agreed a £6.48m investment for a school which has seen a significant increase in numbers.

The proposal for King Edward VI School (KEVI) in Morpeth, Northumberland, will see a new sports hall, open to the wider community, with the existing facility converted into new classrooms.

At a meeting of Northumberland County Council's cabinet, the rise in pupil numbers was put down to a number of new housing developments in the town.

Cabinet member for education Conservative Guy Renner-Thompson said: "This is a very exciting project for Morpeth that has been needed for a long time."

"We have a growing population in Morpeth, people are moving here, so we need more school space," he added.

'No planning'

The sports hall will be funded by the council, while the remodel of the previous facilities will be funded by the Cheviot Learning Trust, the academy chain that runs the school on behalf of the council, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Deputy leader, Conservative councillor Richard Wearmouth, criticised the previous Labour administration for "failing to plan ahead" for the increase in pupil numbers.

"Thousands of houses in Morpeth received planning permission in parts of Morpeth where the infrastructure wasn’t there," he said.

"There was no planning, no forethought – it was all just left to go to hell in a handcart."

'Take responsibility'

In response, Northumberland Labour leader councillor Scott Dickinson pointed out the Conservatives had been in power for seven years and "need to take some responsibility".

“We built a brand new Morpeth First School opposite County Hall which had extra places and invested in lots of schools, including in Morpeth, to keep up with classroom pressures and the numbers in Morpeth, which has been a strain for decades," he said.