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March 29th 2024

Danesmore Park School In Legal Battle

Councillor Phil Bateman said "I have been enquiring about the Danesmore Park Primary School as it is scheduled to wind up in December. I have asked about the reserves that the school has and how they will be treated?
Dave Rawlinson from the City Education Authority informs me that "When Danesmore Park School closes on 31 December 2007, any reserves will revert to the Authority because that is a statutory requirement.

At present we estimate there will be a balance of just under £50,000 .

The Authority can award a transitional grant to the merged School.

Our recent practice has been to make the transitional grant the same as the closing reserves I.e. £50,000 in this case."

Councillor Bateman added "So it appears that the reserves in normal circumstances would come back to the children via a transitional grant process.

But there is a real whiff of bad news in this article for I have been informed by Mr Rawlings that "There is an outstanding contractual difficulty regarding a printer/photocopier lease agreement.
The then Headteacher signed an agreement on 28 February 2007 (at a time when the School was subject to a public notice proposing closure at 31 August 2007) for the supply of 12 printers/photocopiers.

This agreement commits the School to 20 quarterly payments of just over £8,000 i.e. more than £160,000 over 5 years.

Legal and Procurement are working with us to minimise the cost of premature termination of the agreement, but this is likely to be substantial and will almost certainly wipe out the closing reserve. Beyond that charge would have to be met by the Authority, not by Oak Meadow."

Councillor Phil Bateman added " Clearly the City Council Counciltax payers are now going to have to pick up a legal bill to cover a fight to get out of this contract. Now as there are likely legal proceedings to take place, it would not be sensible of me to make my feelings known. So I will have to content myself with bringing this financial disaster to the publics attention via this web site."

Author: Phil Bateman

Article Date: 17th November 2007