Nottingham receives BSF deadline
A deadline of 11 April has been set by education secretary Michael Gove for Nottingham City Council to resubmit its proposals for funding from the government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme. In a statement, Gove said he would keep “an open mind” when reconsidering the requests for funding, after the High Court ruled against him last month.
It was ruled that Gove must reconsider his decision to cut funding from six councils through the government’s axing of the £55bn BSF programme.
Now the councils have until 11 April to resubmit plans detailing the schemes they wish to save.
Councillor David Mellen, Nottingham City Council’s portfolio holder for children’s services, told Insider: “We received a letter from Mr Gove about the consultation on our BSF projects which were stopped back in July 2010.
“We are working closely with the affected schools to compile a range of information for example building condition, basic need pressures, contractual liabilities, equalities impact, which we feel Mr Gove needs to consider when re-making his decision.
“We will also supply details of the costs that we have incurred in starting work on the Trinity and Top Valley projects which we were led to believe had been approved in February 2010.
“In the meantime I have written to Mr Gove offering to meet with him in London or Nottingham.
“We remain hopeful that Mr Gove, having considered all the information we present to him, will reconsider his decision to stop the Wave 5 projects so that we can push ahead with our plans to transform teaching and learning and deliver 21st century facilities in Nottingham.”
The authorities which brought the action against the government were Nottingham, Sandwell Borough Council, Waltham Forest London Borough Council, Newham London Borough Council, Kent County Council and Luton Borough Council.
During the hearing, Mr Justice Holman said that in five of the cases brought to court, Gove had committed “an abuse of power”.
In a statement relating to the extended deadline for the six councils involved, Gove said that he would carefully consider the information provided by the authorities, and would hold meetings with the relevant parties.
He added: “At the next stage a letter detailing my provisional or ‘minded to’ decision will be sent to the local authorities and they will be given the opportunity to make further representations.
“After that, I will make a decision on each of the projects, having considered, with an open mind, all of the information gathered over the consultation period and with due regard to my equalities duties. As the judge made clear, 'the final decision on any given school or project still rests with [me]', and that I 'may save all, some, a few or none'. He concluded by saying that 'no one should gain false hope from this decision'.”
