For those readers whose local schools are subject to the county council’s wide-ranging reorganisation plans this is brief account of what you can expect.
Back in 2011 it was agreed to merge Hakin Infants and Hakin Junior Schools to form Hakin Community School.
I was a governor of Hakin Infants at the time and urged my fellow governors to drive a hard bargain by making a cast iron guarantee of a new school under the 21st Century Schools programme a condition of their agreement.
We were told that, until the merger was agreed, there would not be the “transformational” change required to qualify for a bid for funds under the 21St Century schools scheme.
However we were assured by the, then, cabinet member for education, Cllr Huw George, that he had a promise from the Welsh Government that the 21st Century Schools programme was immune from any austerity cuts.
I don’t doubt that Cllr George was simply passing on what he had been told, but, in fact, the Welsh Government failed to keep that promise and the funding for the programme was changed from 70:30 (WAG-local authority) to 50:50 and the start of the programme was delayed for two years.
In the intervening years, I have constantly pressed for a new building for Hakin Community School to be given priority.
In the early part of last year, with the 21st Century Schools programme about to kick off in 2014, Cllr Viv Stoddart and I had meetings with council officers about the funding and siting of the new school.
At that point, the main emphasis was on a new building for Hakin Community School, but also in the background was the possibility, no more, that Hubberston VC school might also be included.
Informal consultations were held with parents of both Hakin Community School and Hubberston VC in June last year.
Naturally, given the present unsatisfactory arrangement where Hakin Community School operates on two separate sites, Hakin parents were enthusiastic at the prospect of a new school.
However, both Hubberston parents and governors were almost unanimously opposed to the proposal to merge their school with Hakin.
Present at those meetings was David Hopkins PCC’s acting head of education.
He told both meetings that Hakin would have a new school regardless of whether the merger with Hubberston went ahead.
None of the present sites being considered big enough even for a new Hakin School, the council had identified part of the Observatory sports field as the site for the new school.
There were two alternatives:
(a) Build the new school on Hakin United’s football field, with the main rugby pitch being turned through 90 degrees to allow the soccer pitch to be relocated alongside, and
(b) Build the new school on the area of ground between the main rugby pitch and Gellyswick Road.
The second option was favoured mainly because it would cause less disruption to the two sports clubs.
Knowing how important the two clubs are in the community – especially the amount of time and effort they put into coaching and arranging games for youngsters – Cllr Viv Stoddart and I set up meetings between the clubs and representatives of the county council and the design team so that the clubs’ concerns could be taken into account.
During the meeting with Milford Haven RFC on 18 September, the architects told us that their brief was to produce a design that could be adapted to accommodate either Hakin alone or the larger Hakin/Hubberston agglomeration.
So, at that point, the question of a merger was still in the melting pot.
We emailed the county council officer co-ordinating the scheme to confirm this and he replied: “The design will be sufficiently flexible to allow for the possibility that Hubberston VC may not be included within this project.”
The following week we met with Hakin United AFC when we were informed that the brief had now been changed and that they were now charged with designing a school for the merged entity.
When we queried this change with the project co-ordinator we were told: “I can confirm that we are now progressing with the design based on the full size school, to include Hakin Infants/Junior and Hubberston VC.”
At the Cabinet meeting in November 2013 it was resolved: “That the Director for Children and Schools consult on the proposal to discontinue Hakin Community School and Hubberston VC School and to establish a single all-through English medium Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled primary school, effective from 1 September 2016.”
The consultation meetings took place in December when Hubberston parents’ opposition to the proposed merger was restated in the strongests terms.
However, what did emerge during that meeting was that the council had submitted a business case for the merged school to WG in late September.
At least that explained the change in the architects brief in the interval between our meetings with the rugby and football clubs.
For whatever reason, this development was not reported to Cabinet in November.
In any case, the fact that the council’s officers had already committed to the merger made the December consultation exercise look like a going-through-the motions, box-ticking exercise.
These meetings were also told that any departure from the super-school plan would mean going back to the drawing board to produce a new business case for a Hakin-only school.
So the Hubberston parents and governors had now been manoeuvred into the invideous position where their continued opposition, if successful, would lead to an unspecified delay in the new school for Hakin which everyone agrees is essential.
The dog barks and the caravan moves on and the Cabinet will meet next Monday to approve (rubber stamp) the merger of the two schools.
And now there is a new and even more serious development because the report to Cabinet states:
“It is difficult to see how a business case for option 3 [a new school for Hakin alone] would establish sufficient value for money particularly in the context of existing approval and the changing emphasis in the county towards maximising the investment in the transformation of secondary education in the county. There is therefore a high degree of risk in relation to securing the capital funding and, if not successful, would result in substantial capital funding being lost altogether for primary provision in Milford Haven.”
And, “To seek to establish a business case for funding under 21st Century Schools Programme for Hakin school only, recognising that the tests of value for money and transformation will have to be addressed in the context of other competing priorities .”
So the message to the parents and governors of Hubberston is quite clear: persist with your opposition to this merger and you will deny Hakin the chance of a new school altogether.
And what of Mr Hopkins’ unambiguous promise last June that this situation wouldn’t arise?
Well, that should teach you never to take anything that PCC says at its face value.
If Hubberston parents need further “encouragement” to drop their objections: “Potential sites have been identified should Cabinet decide to proceed with this option. This is likely to be on the current junior school site in very close proximity to Hubberston school site.”
Having been involved with this issue since last spring, when we had a meeting with council officers to discuss potential sites, I can say that the present junior school site was never an option.
It was agreed at a very early stage that it wasn’t big enough to accommodate Hakin Junior/Infants and even if it was the traffic problems are insurmountable.
So I can only assume that this has now been thrown into the mix in order to further emphasise the damage these objectors are likely to inflict.
There has been another interesting episode in this saga.
A few weeks ago, Grumpette spotted an article in the Western Mail which reported that Ceredigion County Council had taken advantage of a change in legislation to transfer decisions on school closures/amalgamations from the Cabinet to full council.
Seeing as, under the present regime, the two members representing Hakin/Hubberston (Grumpette and me) will never have the opportunity to speak or vote on these important issues affecting our constituents, we decided it might be a good idea if this procedure was adopted in Pembrokeshire.
So we collected enough signatures to call an extraordinary meeting to debate the issue.
As there are many members (including not a few in the ruling IPPG) whose areas are likely to be affected by plans for school closures/reorganisations in the not too distant future, we are fairly confident that we can get this change through council.
Requests for extraordinary meetings have to be submitted to the Chairman of council who has seven days to respond.
If the Chairman fails/refuses to call the meeting within the time limit, the signatories can then apply to the Head of Legal Services who must call a meeting within five working days.
The original request to the chairman was submitted on March 11 and you will not be surprised to learn that he waited until the 18th before informing us of his refusal, or that the Head of Legal Services used up the full five days before he called the meeting.
Unfortunately, the constitution doesn’t specify any time limit on when the meeting must be held, though clearly it must be before the next scheduled meeting of full council.
The meeting has been called for May 1 (seven weeks after the original request) and the next scheduled meeting is on May 8.
Meanwhile Grumpette emailed the Director of Education on 24 March to enquire as to the progress of the Hakin/Hubberston merger plans.
He replied on the Thursday 27th: “As the local members for the area I would happy to meet with you to talk through the possible options as we go forward and the rationale behind my likely recommendation which I am committed to returning to cabinet as soon as is possible. Let me know and I will ensure I get a possible date to meet with you as soon as is practicable.”
Grumpette emailed back the following morning: “Next week, not Tues pm, or Fri am-except we will be in County Hall that morning for seminar on Welfare reform at 10am. We could work round that.”
Unfortunately, on the following Tuesday (April 1), before this meeting “to talk through the possible options” could be arranged, we received notification of the forthcoming Cabinet meeting containing the Director’s strongly-worded recommendation that merging the two schools is the only realistic option.