Free school funding used to pay for CCTV and highway improvements

Enfield Council has charged a local academies trust around £160,000 so far under a planning approval agreement known as “Section 106”, which demands that developers pay for additional infrastructure surrounding developments such as transport or road improvements.

The council has confirmed that it used the education budget funding to develop CCTV for parking control, footway improvements and traffic management orders around the schools. The London borough said its actions were in line with planning application procedures.

But the government is investigating the practice after local MP Nick de Bois raised concerns about the issue during parliamentary questions.

“Central government is giving money for a school, that is to the benefit of local children, and yet the council sees fit to take Section 106 money which reduces the amount that can be spent on the school development,” said de Bois.

“Surely this is utterly inappropriate because if money is given to build a school, it should be for the school.”

The Cuckoo Hall Academies Trust paid the council £110,000 in Section 106 contributions for a primary academy it opened in Enfield last year, plus a further £50,000 for a second primary school opened this year.

But following Department for Education approval to build a secondary school in the area, the trust is anxious that funding it receives from central government will be substantially reduced by the council’s planning demands.

“It’s concerning that primary schools, which are smaller by nature, have incurred that much cost, so the amount for a secondary school will also be a concern,” said Matthew Laban, head teacher of Kingfisher Hall Primary Academy, which belongs to the Cuckoo Hall Academies Trust.

“I don’t know what we sacrifice, whether it’s books, desks or computers in favour of CCTV cameras.”

Enfield Council said its planning committee treated all school planning applications in the same manner.

“Any new educational provision, be it free school, academy or maintained, will have an impact on traffic and the environment and ameliorating the impact of these issues costs money. There is no differentiation between different types of schools,” said Ayfer Orhan, lead member for children and young people at the council.

The Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said he and Education Secretary Michael Gove were investigating the practice as a “matter of urgency”.

“Government is not happy about this and its quite clearly looking at ways of trying to deal with it,” said de Bois. “My guess is they will come back and say everyone’s playing by the rules but it’s inappropriate.”

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman confirmed that officials were looking into the issue and would release more information soon.