Dear Resident,
Sully - £2M Section 106 motion suffers a narrow defeat at Vale of Glamorgan Council meeting on 7thDecember 2020
At Monday night’s Vale of Glamorgan Full Council meeting the motion (shown below) put forward by Cllr Bob Penrose and seconded by Cllr Kevin Mahoney suffered a narrow defeat, when it came to a recorded vote by all Councillors attending the Virtual meeting.
The actual record of the vote was
21 votes against the proposal.
18 votes for the proposal
6 abstentions (including all 3 Plaid Cymru Councillors)
The motion made by Cllr Penrose and seconded by Cllr Mahoney was as follows
“I request the Vale of Glamorgan Council countermand the decision made by the Education Department to appropriate £2,000,000 of Section 106 monies received from Taylor Wimpey (in respect of the Cog Development – allocated for education in the Sully Ward) which they now plan to allocate to a new Ysgol y Deri school satellite building under the Welsh Government “Band B” schedule.
I require this decision to be reversed as the Section 106 monies are for education in Sully and should be allocated to the replacement or the remodelling of Sully Primary School”
At the commencement of the debate Cllr Penrose read out the motion and then addressed the meeting with the following statement -
The reason I have placed this motion before Council this evening, is because the actions proposed by the Education department creates a precedence and flies in the face of the democratic process for both the residents and the local elected members.
At a virtual ‘Teams’ meeting with the Section 106 manager and senior education managers, Cllr Mahoney and myself, were informed that £2M of the Sully S106 monies for education were being appropriated to finance a new remote location of Ysgol y Deri school without any consultation with the two local elected members. When queried by myself I was told that this action was permissible and did not require the consultation or agreement of the local members owing to delegated powers passed by Council some time ago.
I find this situation totally unacceptable and could only assume Cllr Mahoney and myself would not have been made aware of the proposed scheme, had we not insisted on calling the S106 meeting.
At this point I would like to emphasise that neither Cllr Mahoney or myself are opposed to the concept of a satellite educational facility for Ysgol y Deri and that we both appreciate the excellent and sterling work undertaken by this school, our objection is purely against the undiscussed acquisition of £2 M of funds from the Sully S106 education monies.
I would now like to briefly state the financial funding of this project for the benefit of all elected members who may not be aware.
The total funds for the new school amounts to £11 M of which Welsh Government, under 21st Century Schools ‘Band B’ schedule, will be funding £8.25 M, leaving a balance to the Vale of Glamorgan Council of £2.5 M, of which £2 M will be taken from Sully S106 monies, that is approximately 75%.
My point is that Ysgol y Deri is a special educational needs school for the benefit of pupils throughout the Vale of Glamorgan and beyond, being utilised by other local authorities such as Cardiff, who pay direct to the Council for their students to attend.
Accordingly, the funding of any additions to the main school should be funded proportionally by all wards of the Vale of Glamorgan as well as a major contribution from central Council Funds and certainly not fall upon one particular ward, as is definitely the case in this instance.
I therefore call upon all elected members present to vote on this issue and to support my motion, furthermore I request a recorded vote.
Following this Cllr Mahoney then seconded the motion and fully endorsed all its content. Adding the comment “I fully recognise and appreciate the excellent work carried out by Ysgol y Deri School but this is a special education facility for the whole of the Vale of Glamorgan and beyond”, which consequently should be centrally financed by the Vale of Glamorgan Council, with proportional funding from all its wards and definitely not financed by one particular ward as proposed.
Cllr Mahoney also gave a note of warning to all Councillors “that in future this could happen in a ward near you!”
Debate then followed from various Councillors including the Leader Cllr Neil Moore who commented that he thought the motion was premature as the decision had not yet been made or sanctioned by the Cabinet.
The Deputy Leader (Cabinet Member for Learning and Generation) - Cllr Lis Burnett then added her comments ending with a personal criticism of the two Sully Councillors accusing them of not appreciating the excellent work carried out at Ysgol y Deri and denying their funding requirements.
This outburst from Cllr Burnett was not only unnecessary but completely non factual as Cllr Penrose and Cllr Mahoney had previously gone to great length to show their support and appreciation for Ysgol y Deri school, but they had difficulty in accepting these proposed funding arrangements which would be at the expense of their ward.
However, following on from this defeat the cause has not yet been lost and Cllr Penrose and Cllr Mahoney will continue challenging the proposal, especially as the Leader stated that no decision has yet been made.
Both Councillors also call upon all residents, parents, community councillors, school staff etc. to write to the Leader and Deputy Leader challenging this proposal and requesting a full consultation in the matter of appropriating this £2M of Section 106 money from Sully and delaying necessary improvement work at Sully Primary School.
Please find below the e-mail contact details should you require to send in a representation of objection to the Vale of Glamorgan Council proposal for appropriating £2 M of Sully S106 (education) monies.
Cllr Neil Moore - Leader - nmoore@valeofGlamorgan.gov.uk
Cllr Lis Burnett - Deputy Leader - lburnett@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk
Mrs Paula Ham - Director of Learning - pham@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk
Regards,
Bob Penrose (Cllr)