Public consultation on the proposed closure and merging of schools in Coventry will start next month, but should not become a war using children, councillors have decided.

Fourteen schools are currently affected in the plans to reduce 2,000 surplus places from the city by 2005.

A bid is to be made to the government for money to remodel and rebuild schools as part of the efficiency measures ordered by the DfEE and Ofsted.

Councillors today agreed to send the proposals out to a series of public meetings at all the affected schools.

Revised plans will then be considered in April and the hope is to advertise the legal notices for the closures and changes in May.

At a packed meeting today, Cllr Rob Windsor said which ever way the scheme was looked at it was “still a closure programme”.

He argued that the council should have lobbied the government for an increase on the amount of space allowed per pupils, as this would have reduced the amount of surplus spaces.

And he caused fury among other councillors when he remarked:

“If closures are proposed a battle will take place in local communities and I won’t be shy in helping organise people.”

Cllr Dave Chater summed up the mood against Cllr Windsor when he said:

“I’m not prepared to use children as cannon fodder.”

Cllr George Duggins, cabinet member (Education and Library Services) said the consultation would be “robust” and could lead to changes, as it had done in 1995 when the last surplus place exercise took place.

He said the exercise should be seen as a positive chance to improve the lot of children in the city:

“These are proposals, but we don’t have the monopoly on good ideas if people come forward with another way of tackling the problem.

”The main people we have to consider are the children. They are first, second and third. We don’t have an option to do nothing.”

He added that teachers’ jobs were more likely to be secure in larger schools, as small schools’ funding is often at the mercy of demographics and doesn’t allow for long-term planning.

Cllr Duggins added that the full list of meetings would be made available as “a matter of priority.”

SEE [09 JAN 01] COVENTRY SCHOOLS TO CLOSE  AS PLACES ARE CUT