Funding for a free school to which two top councillors have strong links was originally going to be for more than a dozen different schools, documents suggest.
CONTROVERSIAL funding for a free school to which two top councillors have strong links was originally going to be for more than a dozen different schools, documents suggest.
The Royal Borough has come under pressure over the past fortnight from a parents' group called Fair Funding For All Borough Schools for £480,000 of developer contribution cash being granted to Holyport College in April this year to facilitate an already fast-tracked expansion.
The funding comes from developer contributions for a 271-home residential development in Stafferton Way, Maidenhead.
According to council documents from January, the initial distribution of developer funding asked for by the council's education department was for close to £900,000 to primary and secondary schools across Maidenhead, including Year 7 entry at Holyport College, to meet needs in Maidenhead.
However, this had changed by March to £737,260 of developer contributions for educational purposes with £480,000 going to Holyport College for sports and changing facilities, enlarging the kitchen and library re-configuration. The remaining £250,000 was earmarked for other Maidenhead schools projects.
A council spokeswoman said: "The borough can only collect section 106 developer contributions to help fund additional capacity within local schools to meet the extra demand generated by new houses.
"The revised proposal to use the section 106 contribution from the Stafferton Way development at Holyport College recognises the high number of preferences for places at this school received in both September 2014 and again in 2015.
"The scheme meets the requirements of the revised 2015 section 106 collection regulations being local to the development and providing additional capacity. Holyport College were awarded £480,000 and it is now programmed into our capital programme.
"The funding will come from Harrow Estates. Furze Platt were also awarded some developer contributions.
"All decisions regarding these were undertaken in the public domain, are recorded and details are on our website." It should be noted for 2015/16, Holyport College had 120 day and boarding places available for Year 7 and 9 entry and was oversubscribed. However, this is compared to, for example, 230 places available at The Windsor Boys' School for Year 9 entry and 189 at Desborough College for Year 7 entry.
The funding was approved at a full council meeting on April 28. At the meeting, Cllr Phill Bicknell, the cabinet member for education (at the time, children's services) declared an interest in the item as his son is head of sport at Holyport College. Cllr Simon Dudley, cabinet member for finance and deputy leader of the council, declared an interest as the founder and chair of governors at the school.
Both councillors voted on the item.
The reason for the £480,000 of funding is to expand Holyport College by an extra 48 pupils across the whole school - Year 7 and 9 entry - but with 24 made available from September this year, different to the original schools expansion plan agreed in December.
The school currently has less than 150 pupils on its roll, but is meant to boast a 500-pupil capacity in its current guise. The school opened in September after costing £10m to build.
The expansion of Holyport College itself was the subject of much controversy when it was approved in December last year as long-term plans for the expansion of schools across the borough were markedly changed in the two weeks between the council's Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel seeing the proposals and them being approved by cabinet.
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