Paragraph 92 indicates that the population of Dunton Hills Garden Village may not be sufficient to justify a new secondary school for the development.

The garden village will take years to build during which time there will not be sufficient population to justify a new school.

Essex County Council have in the past been reluctant to provide new secondary schools in this area when there is spare capacity in surrounding towns.

It would be much better to place housing development around Brentwood Town where a number of good schools can already accommodate the new intake and can be expanded incrementally as need grows.

Secondary school allocation has always been a huge concern for our area of Basildon. This Dunton development, if it proceeds, requires a secondary school to serve for the local community.

It's clear that the development at Dunton Hills and West Horndon will not support a secondary school in the eyes of Essex Council who also refuse to take into account the lack of a secondary school in West Basildon. By contrast there is spare capacity at schools around Brentwood Town. This is another reason why the Garden Village proposal is in the wrong place.

Secondary Schools -
Page 43: Paragraph 91 - Attention must be paid to the longer term forecasts, based on current primary school cohorts, which are published in the Ten Year Plan (page 29). This is to ensure that the full Plan period is accounted for, as the ECC forecasting plan is for a period up to 2020/21, but the BBC draft Local Plan is up to 2033.

Page 43: Paragraph 92 - As set out in ECC's 'Planners' Guide to School Organisation' (section 2.2), a school that will grow to 6fe is the smallest that can be supported and would require a minimum of 7.9ha of suitable land. The growth within the Plan period should make this viable if the school is planned to meet some wider demand. Although the site promotor for DHGV has alluded to an 'all-through' school, the type of school has yet to be determined, and this model may not fit with the spatial distribution of primary school places that will be required elsewhere in the borough. The school's role in meeting wider demand and the potential need for future expansion must be agreed with ECC prior to the commencement of any master planning work. If the garden village is to grow to circa 4,000 dwellings a minimum of 10ha secondary school site should be reserved.

Para 92 - ECC is very supportive of a joined up Basildon/Thurrock approach to the identification of education needs in relation to Dunton Hills and adjacent developments in these other LPA areas.

Hermes would welcome discussions with the Council regarding paragraph 92 and the requirement for secondary places generated by the redevelopment of West Horndon Industrial Estate