Sandwell success in judicial review plea after scrapped BSF programme

A JUDICIAL review hearing into the radically revised Building Schools for the Future programme will take place next month following a battle by a West Midlands council.

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council and five other local authorities across England challenged education secretary Michael Gove’s decision in July to cut drastically the BSF programme.

The £55bn scheme would have seen large-scale improvements or brand new buildings at schools across the country over the next few years.

However, with notable exceptions such as Wolverhampton and Stoke, education authorities across the West Midlands were told in the summer that the original plans on their patches were being massively scaled back.

Now the High Court in London will hear a review in January after courts ruled that Sandwell, Notttingham, Newham, Waltham Forest, Luton and Kent councils could all challenge the BSF decision.

The hearing will initially decide whether to allow the six local authorities to seek a judicial review.

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Of the 22 original BSF projects in Sandwell, 10 were given the green light to proceed by the Department for Education, nine were stopped and the final three, all academies, were tabled for discussion.

Council Leader Cllr Darren Cooper said: “We do not want to take legal action but we have left with no choice by the Government’s decision.

“If we can get it changed, it will be money well spent.”

Two BSF schools are under construction in Sandwell – Smethwick and Rowley learning campuses – while the authority is developing plans for a further three schools in Oldbury, Tipton and Wednesbury.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “The Secretary of State will continue to defend vigorously the cases brought against him.”