After a 12-year planning saga, the scheme for Berkeley Homes to deliver a new building for the Howard of Effingham School, to be built on green belt and paid for by the profit from building 405 ‘enabling’ homes, collapsed on 26th March. Berkeley Homes pulled the plug on the project and decided instead to pursue residential development without a new school.
So what went wrong? EFFRA and Effingham Parish Council (EPC) believe this sad story demonstrates that private sector developers should not be permitted to deliver public sector infrastructure in exchange for inappropriate development that would not otherwise have been allowed, particularly on valuable green belt land. This was not the way to provide new buildings for our well-regarded secondary school.
Effingham strongly supports the Howard School – our children receive an excellent education there – but our village community should not have to pay the price of a new building through loss of countryside and increased danger on our rural roads. We argued that the new school was essential public educational infrastructure which should be paid for by the state and not be dependent on Berkeley Homes making a profit from building on green belt land.
EFFRA has worked with Effingham Parish Council throughout the last 12 years, trying to protect our community from this inappropriate scheme. In the belief that this should be a matter of public record, EFFRA has published a statement here and EPC has published a more detailed statement here.