A FORMER parent governor of a Winchester primary school has clashed with the county council over its work at Hampshire’s first ‘super school’.

Mark Benzie, 43, an architect of Greenhill Road, said he recently left his role as a governor at Western Primary School due to ‘council incompetence’.

He said Western is being ignored with planned work pushed back by over two years due to building at nearby Westgate School.

“Our school has been neglected and the school next door is going up no expense spared and £1 million spent on architect’s fees,” he said.

“I think it is outrageous that they are going back on promises to keep Western maintained.”

He said the council is “not above the law” after Chris Murray, head of strategic planning (HCC), admitted a breach of planning conditions at Westgate School. Road works at Chilbolton Avenue were not yet completed when the new nursery was occupied.

The council also did not apply for planning permission for temporary buildings, Mr Benzie added.

In a letter to the Hampshire Chronicle, Mr Murray said the breach was considered minor and therefore not acted upon.

But Mr Benzie said the council should have to comply with the same rules as everyone else.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Ongoing work at Westgate School

He said the work at Westgate is discouraging parents to send their children to Western Primary.

“Every time people come in on admissions and see the shabby front it pushes people to the new school,” he said.

“Western is a brilliant school, in the top four per cent for results and has dedicated teachers. It’s really well run. It’s everything you could want and Hampshire County Council is really letting us down.

“The council have scheduled the work for the summer, this is two years and two admissions rounds later than originally planned or agreed.”

Paul Cooper, of Cheriton Road, shared Mr Benzie’s view and said the new brick-pillars at the entrance of Westgate “seems to be one huge vanity project”.

“I think the real irony is that we have Western up the road that has to put buckets out to catch water from a leaking roof (I hear from an informed source), yet we are seeing funds squandered like this from the education capital budget which involved ripping out a perfectly serviceable beech hedge and existing entrance/school gates. Wasn’t the £7.5 million or so enough to spend on the new primary?” he said.

Cllr Peter Edgar, executive member for education, said: “The transformation of Westgate School is part of the county council’s response to a large increase in pupil numbers in the Winchester area.

“Across a number of Winchester schools, the council is investing more than £15 million to provide local schools for local children and meet the future demand for places in the area.”

He added that the architect fees for Westgate are expected given the size of the project.

“The school and all those in its community deserve the very best we can give.”

He said redecorated and rerendering of Western will start in the summer term, and is likely to be completed by September.

Westgate School is the county’s first ‘super school’, catering for both primary and secondary school pupils.

Andrew Strevens, chair of governors at Western primary, said: “In working with the county council over a prolonged period of time, we have identified the need for a number of repairs and the external redecoration of the school. These have been delayed on a number of occasions. Arrangements are in-hand for the decoration to start during May and other repairs completed by the end of the summer term.”