Bournemouth council urged to re-open Townsend primary school

Dozens of families in Bournemouth have been refused a place at their catchment primary school and are instead facing lengthy treks to schools several miles away.

The situation is most acute in Muscliff, where 15 families living in the catchment area of Muscliff Primary did not get a place, and in Southbourne, where 41 families living in the catchment area of Stourfield Infants missed out.

Many of these families also failed to get their children into the local alternatives and have now been allocated a place at a school they had not chosen.

The vast majority of parents who failed to secure one of their three chosen schools have been allocated places at Winton, Kingsleigh and Heathlands instead – several miles away from both Muscliff and Southbourne.

Independent councillor Ron Whittaker, who represents Muscliff and is a governor of the school, said they had been inundated by calls from upset parents since the offer letters went out.

Anyone living more than 0.454 of a mile away from the school was unable to get in.

“Every single person who has called the school put Muscliff, Epiphany and Queens Park as their three choices and ended up with Kingsleigh,” he said.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with Kingsleigh but it does not make sense for parents living in Muscliff and Throop to have to travel some four miles every day, or for the council to lay on transport to take them there.

“It shows what a massive and very stupid and costly mistake it was to close Townsend primary.

“I want the council now to pull their fingers out and do something at Townsend this year.”

Fellow Muscliff councillor Anne Rey said: “It’s a sad situation when people can’t get into their local schools.

“As far as I’m concerned closing Townsend was a ridiculous decision. It was very short-sighted because it was clear that we needed that school in the north of the town.”

Cllr Nicola Greene, cabinet member for education, said the town was currently experiencing an “unprecedented increase” in primary pupil numbers.

“This issue was identified by the council at an early stage and action has been taken to increase capacity in schools,” she said.

“Over £14m of additional investment has been attracted from central Government to support this.”

She said the development of a new school on the Townsend site was one of a number of projects to provide additional places for September 2013.

'It will be impossible to walk'

Tom Payne lives in Throop with his wife and their two children.

They live in the Muscliff School catchment and listed Muscliff, Epiphany and Queens Park as their three chosen schools.

But their four-year-old daughter has been allocated a place at Kingsleigh in East Howe instead.

Tom, 30, said: “We were 80 metres away from the last place that was offered at Muscliff.

“It’s galling because Muscliff was our first choice whereas we know of parents who put it down as their third choice but got a place there. Apparently it doesn’t make any difference where you rank it, which doesn’t seem fair to us.

“My wife and I are extremely upset about the decision. The majority of my daughter’s friends have got into local schools which means she will be going to Kingsleigh not knowing anybody.

“And it is also going to be extremely difficult to get there. The government are trying to encourage more people to walk to school but that is now impossible for us.

“We are a one-car family and three days a week my wife leaves early in the morning and drives to Lymington while I cycle to work at the Lansdowne.

“My wife’s mother is going to be the primary carer for those three days and travelling to East Howe will be very difficult for her.

“The only option is to get two buses or, if the council provides taxis, she will have to travel with my daughter and our baby son in the taxi and then she and our son will have to be brought back again by taxi.

“The irony is, her house backs on to Muscliff School.”