The Isle of Wight Council and the mainland organisation which runs St Blasius C of E Primary Academy continue to ignore questions about a disputed piece of land in Shanklin which has caused outrage among local residents.
The issue gained prominence when it emerged that a fence had been erected preventing children from accessing the playing field, despite a historic legal covenant granting the nippers of Shanklin the right to use the land outside school hours. Island Echo exclusively reported on the matter back in August – and has been chasing answers ever since.
Both organisations have failed to respond to simple questions repeatedly put to them.
The Isle of Wight Council – as the confirmed freeholder of the land – has been asked several questions with no response forthcoming. On 6th October, they were further asked whether or not their legal department was aware of the existence of the covenant when the land was leased to the Diocese of Chichester Academies Trust. Again, no response has been received some 3 weeks on.
The Diocese of Chichester Academies Trust (DCAT) know of the existence of this covenant as they referred to it in their initial response to questions posed by Island Echo, but they have not responded to repeated subsequent requests as to whether they have an obligation to uphold the said covenant – a question that was asked of them over a month ago on 21st September.
Local councillors, who were tasked with engaging with the school at a heated Shanklin Town Council meeting last month, have also not had any success. Councillors Patrick Barry and Michael Beston have left messages and made personal visits to the school, but the Academy has so far failed to engage with the elected representatives of the local community.
Given the evasion faced by both local media and elected Councillors, Island Echo understands that local residents are now exploring the possibility of launching legal action on behalf of the children of Shanklin.
What does the covenant say?
The land was given in the 19th century by Francis White-Popham ‘for the purpose of providing a playing field for the Shanklin Church of England School’. However, the relevant covenant – a copy of which has been seen by Island Echo – permits ‘any children of junior school age whether or not scholars at the Shanklin Church of England School to use the land conveyed as a recreation ground at all times except during normal school hours’.
Why has the fence been erected?
It has been suggested that ‘safeguarding’ concerns have led to the erection of the fencing – although this is no excuse for going against a legal document dating back almost 150 years.
DCAT say that a series of unfortunate incidents of significant vandalism targeting the school premises and property led to the decision to erect a protective fence. Island Echo has asked for details of these incidents, but no answer has been provided.
Shouldn’t take much to cut through that, battery powered angle grinder would do the job. Re-open it again in minutes.
I fully agree. The local councillors or , better still , Bob Seeley MP should take it into their own hand and remove the fencing. Forget making the legal challenge since the school has not abided by the law in the first place. I bet that they will engage then.
Maybe Clare Mosdell can help solve the issue with her experience
in planning issues.
I feel for the school.
They likely have Ofstead breathing down their necks for safeguarding breaches due to a lack of a secure perimeter (Ofstead couldn’t care less about the legal reason why there is no fence when they do their checks), they have vandalism and H&S implications relating to children accessing their site to contend with on an already laughably stretched budget, and now they have the threat of legal action for restricting access.
I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.
Before anyone comments, no I don’t work there but I have worked in the education sector, in an area that this kind of challenge would be one of my many problems.
They could have erected the fence between the playing field and the school if they were worried about vandalism. There was no need to fence off the playing area.
One of the issues has been that the field was used repeatedly by people leaving broken glass bottles and drug paraphernalia on the site, this renders the field unusable during school hours because of safety issues.
Following with interest and suspicion based upon their evasive and strange behaviour. Highly questionable but not the first time.
If the story about vandalism to the school not just bull then why not put a fence around the SCHOOL and not the grounds? As for the IWC, well they are utterly useless on everything.
How can either of these two groups fail to communicate with requests for clarification..
Particularly with locally elected Councillor ‘s asking on behalf of Shanklin? Did they think it would go unnoticed? Or are frantically engaging some legal eagle to look for chunks in The Covenant? Our Council”you got tonlaugh”are really not fit for any sort of purpose apart from Brown envelope handling and evading any issue!.
Smell a cover up, is there some financial advantage being sought by ” Someone ” should be a proper ‘open ‘ enquiry, and public ruling.
Have you ever known a Councillor to be open and honest?????
They are trained in evasion and smirking !!!!!!
The biggest bunch of clowns….
Whatever party …..