PARENTS have condemned South Gloucestershire Council for “failing” children in Lyde Green.
A four-year delay in building the estate’s new secondary school means that once again, families on the estate are preparing to apply for secondary school places this month, with no idea where their children will actually be offered a place next year.
Parents say they have been met with a “wall of silence” from the council, and have called for places to be allocated at specific secondary schools for Lyde Green children.
The council admits the delays have been “absolutely shameful” – but says it cannot reserve places for children from the estate because of a legal duty to be “fair and equitable”.
The 900-place Lyde Green Secondary School in Honeysuckle Road was given the go-ahead in 2021, along with a second 420-pupil primary school, after years of waiting for government approval and funding.
It was originally intended to be ready in time to welcome its first pupils in 2022 but the date has been repeatedly pushed back, and it is now not due to open until September 2026.
Families of primary school children now going into Year 6 told a council meeting in July they are in limbo because they don’t know which schools to visit and apply for.
Ross Harkins, who has a 10-year-old son, said: “I’m here to highlight the failings for a cohort of children whose needs haven’t been met and in fact might never be met.
“We can make choices of Downend, Mangotsfield, Chipping Sodbury, but the cold, harsh reality might actually be that they are just a myth, that we will get what we are given and will have to be happy with it, and that is not really fair.”
Mr Harkins said his family and others had visited Chipping Sodbury School, but there was no point in applying together and thinking about transport arrangements because “there is no guarantee that we could all get into that school”.
He told councillors: “Any plans that parents make to tryto get our children to school are not worth the paper they’re written on because we do not know where we’re going to get, we do not know what schools are available and we cannot make any plans without any clear messaging and communication from yourselves. And at the moment – I hate to say it – there is a wall of silence.”
Mr Harkins asked if places could be allocated at specific schools for Lyde Green children.
He said: “These children have been failed, and we need to look at decisions and ideas outside the box.
“The children are important.
“They’re not just numbers on a spreadsheet, they are kids with hopes and dreams, fears and anxieties, and it’s your responsibility to do something about it.”
Another parent, Amy Johnson, said parents were in an “impossible situation” of not being able to rely on receiving even one of their three choices of school.
She said: “It looks unlikely that we might get any choices and that means we don’t necessarily know which schools to look at.”
She said siblings faced the prospect of ending up at different schools.
Ms Johnson said children from the estate going into Years 6 and 7 “have essentially been forgotten”, adding: “It’s the overall well-being of our children that’s important, it’s not just will they get a decent education, it’s will they be comfortable, will they be anxious, will they turn up at senior school with no friends whatsoever because they’ve been allocated a random place.”
Council co-leader and cabinet member for schools Ian Boulton said the delays were “absolutely shameful”, and blamed the previous Conservative administration.
He said: “Many families face agonising choices due to the lack of school places in the Lyde Green, Emersons Green and Downend area.
“The situation is primarily caused by the failure to build the schools required in Lyde Green in a timely way to meet the needs of this emerging community.
“Since we formed the council administration last year, virtually from a standing start the project to build the two overdue schools for Lyde Green is now well under way.
“Our efforts will undoubtedly address the current problems for families in the future, however I accept our work cannot possibly provide much comfort for the situation families continue to face here and now and I am genuinely sorry about that.”
A council spokesperson said the authority would “do everything in our power” to ensure the new schools would open in September 2026, with the secondary school offering 180 places for pupils who are now going into Year 5.
The spokesperson said that in the meantime, efforts to secure an extra 180 places at other local schools meant 94% of parents were able to secure a place for their child at one of their three preferred schools.
But he said: “A specific number of places cannot be allocated for residents of the Lyde Green community as the admissions process must be conducted in a way which is legally compliant with the statutory admission code so that allocation of places is fair and equitable to all parents.
“We recognise that the delays to the project have and continue to cause some concerns for local families.”
By Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporting Service