CASH FOUND

Grant rescues schools plan

Plans for two new schools in Maidstone have moved a step closer after the government released extra cash for the project.

Leigh Academies Trust was given the green light last year to open the schools on the Kent Medical Campus site by September 2018, after chancellor Philip Hammond committed £320 million for 140 new free schools.

Maidstone Primary Academy will offer a total 500 places, and Bearsted Academy will offer 50 places - rising to about 150 depending on demand - to some of the region’s most vulnerable pupils.

However, the project faced a stumbling block as doubts emerged over whether the schools could be connected to drainage.

Now though, education minister Lord Agnew has agreed to make the necessary investment in connecting the school to local utilities following lobbying from Faversham and Mid Kent MP Helen Whately.

‘Children in Maidstone desperately need a new primary school and a special needs school to open as soon as possible’ MP Helen Whately, pictured

The next steps are to secure a building contractor and put in a planning application before the schools are set to open in 2020.

Mrs Whately said: “Children in Maidstone desperately need a new primary school and a special needs school to open as soon as possible – or there’s a real risk some could have to travel miles across the county every day.

“There have been so many delays to the plans to get these schools open – problems with drainage were the final hurdle.

“It was so frustrating that after everything – getting the funding, getting all the organisations involved to work together, getting over worries about the location – something as simple as connecting the schools to the drains threatened to derail things.

“I pushed the government hard to think about the needs of children in Maidstone and Bearsted, and I am so glad Lord Agnew agreed to make the extra money available.

“I’ll be working hard to get these schools through the planning process as smoothly as possible and get them open.”