Pupils say they don't feel safe at "shanty town" Biggleswade school

Ivel Valley School and CollegeIvel Valley School and College
Ivel Valley School and College
Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) children have voiced safety concerns in a letter about their school, branded “a shanty town” by a Central Bedfordshire councillor.

Some children at Ivel Valley School and College in Biggleswade wrote to several councillors saying they “don’t feel safe” on a site considered “unfit for purpose”, a meeting heard.

Members of Central Bedfordshire Council’s SEND sub-committee received the letter ahead of an extraordinary meeting to consider a funding shortfall for local SEND provision.

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The local authority has committed to replacing Ivel Valley School at an estimated £43m expenditure based on initial costing work from development consultants, Concertus, according to a report to the sub-committee.

Once final potential locations were identified, a site specific and detailed cost estimate was commissioned from international leaders in this work, AECOM, said the report.

“Its estimated cost of a new 330 place SEND school was £66m, an increase of £23m on CBC’s budgeted amount.

“To help meet growing demand, phase three of the specialist schools places plan 2022 to 2030 included an intention to build a new school to replace the Ivel Valley’s Hitchmead Road site.”

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Conservative Heath and Reach councillor Mark Versallion began the meeting saying: “Each of us had a letter from the pupils, which we haven’t made public.

“We’ve reflected on it privately. We felt that was the right balance, as it was written by children. The sub-committee has considered this quite compelling statement.”

Later Independent Biggleswade West councillor Hayley Whitaker, who received a copy on a visit to the school, warned: “The alarming thing for me is the number of children who say they don’t feel safe.

We heard from the headteacher about walls falling down. I’d really like a recommendation from this sub-committee that something is done about that.

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“If we’ve children who say they don’t feel safe in school because of their structural surroundings, that’s not something we can choose to ignore.”

Independent Sandy councillor Sue Bell explained: “Having visited it, this site looks like a shanty town. We’re not quite at the corrugated iron and cardboard level, but it feels like it’s not far off that.

“Their life limiting conditions aren’t being improved. I’m quite ashamed that’s the case and the other 62 councillors probably feel the same.”

Councillor Versallion, who chairs the sub-committee, referred to “concerns being expressed about physical safety” and suggested a need to convey its recognition of that to CBC’s executive.

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“It’s an extra justification for the capital spend, as there are serious safety issues,” he added.

Conservative Flitwick councillor Ian Adams said: “We hope the solution we’re recommending will resolve the underlying issues.

“There might be some health and safety issues on site now where, if something went wrong, we’d fall foul of the health and safety executive (HSE).

“We don’t want to invest shedloads of money into the current building, only for it to be rebuilt hopefully in another place. We need to get that balance right.”

CBC chief executive Marcel Coiffait confirmed: “Any reprovision isn’t going to happen tomorrow, so if there are serious safety concerns we need to deal with them now.”

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