THURROCK Council’s portfolio holder for education brushed aside claims by a Tory rival that the authority has a hidden agenda against academy schools in the Borough.
At last week’s full Council meeting Tory James Halden asked Cllr Oliver Gerrish to “explain the delay regarding academy status at Chafford Hundred Primary School and went on to question the relationship between the Council and academies.
Cllr Gerrish responded by saying land ownership issues at Chafford, where the primary school is on the site of the area’s secondary school had complicated matters and there were other commercial issues but he assured
Cllr Halden that “the local authority legal team had been working closely with the school through.”
He then said that he had spoken with many school heads in the Borough including Chafford Hundred and most recently at Gable Hall in Corringham, and added: “I would say we have a couple of very happy heads at Chafford Hundred and Gable Hall schools and across the Borough we have a professional and mature partnership with schools.”
