A PLANNED new school in the heart of a major borough housing development is at the centre of a political row after education chiefs decided to put it on hold.

Sherfield Park - a new development for 800 homes on the A33 near Sherfield-on-Loddon - includes a reserved site for a primary school for 210 children, which could be extended to cater for 420 pupils.

However, Hampshire County Council bosses now say that because of a change in the way central government approves borrowing for local authorities, it does not have the cash to build the school.

Instead, the county - which is the Local Education Authority - is now consulting nearby schools in Chineham about the possibility of them taking in the extra pupils.

The decision has sparked a clash between Conservative and Labour politicians. While the Tories say the Government is to blame, Paul Harvey, Labour's would-be MP for Basingstoke, believes sidelining the new school is down to bad decision-making by the LEA.

Last month, the county council sent letters to the headteachers and chairmen of the boards of governors at Four Lanes infant and junior schools, in Hanmore Road, and Great Binfields Primary School, in Farm Lane, asking for feedback on proposals, which include:

adding children from Sherfield Park to the Four Lanes schools' catchment area

transferring a small part of the existing Four Lanes catchment area to Great Binfields

extending Great Binfields school to double its size

The letter said: "There is not sufficient capital finance available to build a new school in the foreseeable future. We have, therefore, negotiated a package with developers so that, if the new school is not built, they would make a financial contribution towards additional accommodation at an existing school, or schools, in the area."

Cllr Ken Thornber, the leader of the Conservative-controlled Hampshire County Council, said: "We have got a problem in that we planned for the school and have found that the grant has been cut from under our feet."

He said that a change in the New Deal for Schools funding scheme meant Sherfield Park would not qualify for government handouts, or capital borrowing, because it is not a deprived area and there are surplus places elsewhere in the county.

Cllr Thornber said: "You can have surplus places in one part of the county, but a shortage in others, so you don't get approval. It's unfair. There's no real relevance, but the civil servants have got us bound hand and foot.

"It might be possible for our heavily-stretched capital programme to try to accommodate a build there. But in this day and age, if we pop this into our capital programme, it would take a little while to come to fruition and could be at the cost of another school."

Maria Miller, who will be fighting the Basingstoke seat for the Conservatives at the next general election, said: "This situation is symptomatic of all the promises we get from the Government that don't happen. If we are going to have centrally-driven house-building targets, we cannot then have money cut for things like education provision.

"If we lose sites like this, which are there because we are planning for growth in the town, then we are setting up problems for the future, and existing local residents are the ones who are going to suffer."

Elaine Still, a Conservative borough councillor for Chineham, also lays the blame for the school problems at the Government's door.

She is additionally unhappy with the proposed catchment area changes. These would mean children living close to Four Lanes schools would have to travel to the more distant Great Binfields school instead.

She said: "These children can walk to Four Lanes, but will have to get in a car and drive to Great Binfields.

"This Government says it wants people to walk and cycle, and then it is going to do this. It's all wrong."

Labour's Cllr Harvey - who as well as being a prospective parliamentary candidate for Basingstoke is the borough's Cabinet member for employment, learning and skills - launched a campaign to safeguard Basingstoke schools from closure in August.

He said that it was county council policy to build fewer, but larger, primary schools comprising of two or three classes per year group. Both the planned-for Sherfield Park school and the existing Great Binfields school cater for one class per year group.

Cllr Harvey said: "This is county council policy. This is nothing to do with Government funding at all. The county council is issued with a lot of resources, and this is about its choice of priorities. This is a county council decision based on what it feels a primary school should be.

"If you look at the building programme in Basingstoke, you can see the amount of investment from Government going into local schools, such as Manor Field, John Hunt and a number of village primary schools.

"The Labour Government is committed to continue funding schools and to rebuild, where needed, every secondary school in the country."

Referring to the proposals now being considered, Cllr Harvey said: "The people of Sherfield Park deserve to have these ideas challenged.

"My view is that local village primary schools are important. People want to have a school in their local community."

Talking about the consultation process, Cllr Thornber said: "The consultation is something that we carry out as a matter of course fairly regularly to ensure catchment areas are reasonable. It's nothing more than a series of ideas. No option has been ruled in or out."

"I also want to reassure people that we will never move children from one school to another."

Representatives from Four Lanes junior and infant schools declined to comment before governors' meetings on November 18 and 23 respectively.

However, Simon Cushing, headteacher of Great Binfields, said: "We are of the opinion to recommend the proposals on the proviso that there is security of placement for sibling children to attend the same school and depending on how soon a building programme could be instigated.

"Knowing the fallout from the Brighton Hill carve-up, there is always a concern about changing catchment areas. People want to keep their community identity but, in this case, there doesn't seem to be a quick fix. It seems the most sensible option is to extend Great Binfields."

He added that governors and senior staff were due to discuss the proposals in detail on Thursday.

Do you have a view on the issues in this story? Write to The Letters Editor, Gazette Newspapers, Gazette House, Pelton Road, Basingstoke, RG21 6YD or e-mail editor@basingstokegazette.co.uk