Schools funding and new housing

Dear Sir,

Your leading article in last week's Chronicle on possible reduced funding for Congleton High School raises important issues.

If I interpret it correctly, government funding is based on the previous year's intake, not the expected current year's numbers.

Mr Hermitt, School Head Master says because of reduced central funding he is reducing the choice of subjects for post 16 education and the number of computers the school can buy.

He implies that Section 106 money will help to compensate this shortfall because it will be a measure of the number of unexpected pupils that come into the town as a result of these new homes and need school places.

Surely, this is well known within both the educational and planning sectors of local government.

Why is there not an automatic application for S106 educational funding whenever new houses are built, based on the expected increase of school children of varying ages that will result from these additional properties?

Yours sincerely,

Dr Peter Hirst

Middlewich