PARENTS were jubilant this evening after councillors agreed a plan to allow children to attend their preferred schools.

Campaigners thanks The Argus for the role it played in forcing a council U-turn.

Mother Clair Letton said: “I’m absolutely delighted, it’s been great. We’ve had local people and the local paper working together to resolve an issue.

“And that’s what a community is about. And now politicians have agreed to make life better for our children, that’s how local government should work.”

The pressure group, Misplaced 38, were unhappy that 38 children who live in the catchment area for the popular Dorothy Stringer and Varndean secondary schools missed out on a place for September.

Children were assigned to schools which would mean an hour’s journey each way. Parents said they would have to give up extra-curricular activities and be ripped from established friendship groups.

Additional capacity was to be found but only from September 2019.

Last Wednesday parents started a petition, asking for temporary buildings to be put up at Stringer urgently, to allow the school to take an extra intake class this September.

After The Argus revealed on Monday that £15m in the education budget - allocated when an additional secondary school was considered necessary - would now be spent on the city’s existing secondary schools, campaigners demanded money for portakabins at Stringer to allow their children to attend.

But the council told The Argus it was “not possible” to bring forward work to increase capacity.

So The Argus asked opposition councillors whether they agreed.

Conservative group leader Tony Janio proposed an amendment to today’s policy resources and growth committee calling for urgent action to allocate funds to allow Stringer and Varndean to accommodate the “Misplaced 38”.

And today in the committee Labour councillors moved their own amendment with a similar proposal but a different administrative process.

After an ill-tempered debate at Hove Town Hall filled with political point-scoring, all three parties thrashed out a cross-party amendment which was passed unanimously. It says:

  • Funding has been approved for “all necessary building, adaptation and other associated work” to allow Stringer to accommodate the “misplaced 38”
  • There will be an emergency meeting of Stringer’s headteacher and governors and council officers to agree building works
  • Council officers have been authorised to spend the money and sign the contracts to make this happen, “in the expectation that facilities will be in place for September 2018.”

A later committee meeting will consider what to do with the remainder of the £15m.

Speaking after the meeting father Dominic Marley said: “I’m delighted, just delighted at the news.

 “It’s been a phenomenal week for the campaign. When we met on Sunday I don’t think we could have predicted where we are today.

“It started when The Argus on Monday revealed in the interview with Councillor Morgan that the £15m would be spent across all the school in the Brighton and Hove.

“Then we got the support of Tony Janio the following day in putting forward the amendment.

“[Brighton and Hove City Council’s senior education officer] Pinaki Ghoshal’s statement that this is not achievable has been proved wrong by the group, and by experts in the city who have supported us. This is a fantastic day.

“My son Isaac lives in the Stringer catchment, he’s been offered a place at Patcham. That’s a good school but he’s the only child in Elm Grove going there, he knows no-one there.

“This isn’t about wanting our kids to go to the most popular schools, it’s about us wanting to be part of our community and our children to remain with their friends.”

Una Nicholson, whose son Ollie would face an hour-long journey to Hove Park rather than Stringer, said: “I’m absolutely delighted. Really I’m so happy, I could cry. I really can’t believe we’ve managed to do it."

Janette Ackroyd said: “We’d like to thank The Argus for your support. We’re just parents, we’ve never done this before, we don’t know how to take on the system.”

The Argus understands that in informal discussions with councillors this week, Stringer headteacher Richard Bradford has indicated his school will accept the children from September 2018 if appropriate resources are made available.