Durham Johnston Admisions update
A meeting is being held on Monday morning (31 March) with the Director of Children’s Services, Councillor Vasey (Cabinet member with the education portfolio) and several Durham City County Councillors (including yours truly) to discuss the way forward. I will report back after.
In the meantime I have been doing some research on the issue of whether Shincliffe and Bowburn are closer (by road) to the Crossgate Moor DJ site or to Gilesgate Comp.
Logically, as all shortest journeys would have to pass the junction on the A177 just along from The Rose Tree, the answer to which is the shorter will be the same for everyone irrespective of the particular house they live in.
So try the following: go to the AA journey planner web site and find the distance between DH1 2YJ (Telford Close in High Shincliffe) and DH1 4SU (Crossgate Moor DJ site) and the distance from DH1 2YJ to DH1 1HN (Gilesgate Comp).
When I did this they both came to 4.03 miles! [But please tell me if I got this wrong - although I did do it twice]
Now I have to issue a word of caution here, since the AA routes may not be the ’shortest safe route’ as defined by the County Council, but this does explain why families in both Bowburn and Shincliffe are confused and upset over the future admissions arrangements.
The current county bussing policy talks about conveying children to the closest appropriate school, and no-one at County Hall has bothered to tell people in that area which this is, even though all that has to be done is to measure the shortest difference from the junction mentioned above.
Forgive me if I go on further about this. Suppose, for the sake of argument that it turns out that Gilesgate is closer and that the County sticks to its policy as stated. Then families can still apply to DJ and may well get a place on the final distance criteria, but then they will have either to drive their children over (great for the environment!) or to pay for bus fares. Either way this disadvantages familes with fewer resources to spare.
DJ Governors repeated their view yesterday at their latest governing body meeting that they wish to maintain their commitment and association with the villages concerned, and indeed this was promised by Councillor Vasey’s Labour Cabinet predecessor in public less than nine months before approval for the new building was finally given.
There is a way out for the Council, though. The actual admissions criteria that the Cabinet want to adopt also mentions a phrase like ‘economic efficiency’ in relation to bussing arrangements, so they have the chance to decide to retain the existing bus arrangements on economic grounds.
But this all shows how useless Labour are at getting things right. One reason this has blown up is because the local county council members have not been properly consulted as the decision making process has gone on. Now, at the eleventh hour, after a massive rumpus, at last we are.
Do they deserve to be relected in May?
2 Comments
have your say
I’ve used the Via Michelin website for my comparisons. By setting it to tell me the shortest route regardless of the time it takes (which is what the bean-counters who worked our my expenses always insisted on) I get 6.5km to Gilesgate Comp and 6km to the Johnston. Both routes are identical to the roundabout at the end of New Elvet, where you turn left for the Johnston and right for Gilesgate. This is also the bus route.
An additional point is that when going to the Johnston you would continue on the same bus to the bus station then walk up Redhills Lane to the school, when going to Gilesgate you would need a second bus to take you down Sunderland Road. The Johnston is therefore cheaper on bus fares.
Trying to be more accurate, I used Google maps to measure the distance from the point where the routes diverge: the result was 1.12 miles to the Johnston and 1.13 miles to Gilesgate, which is much too close to call.
Roger
Roger - see my later posting following the meeting with the Director et al.