MEETING WITH MINISTER ON FLOOD SCHOOL

6.04.57pm GMT Thu 4th Feb 2010

Officials from Somerset County Council will join local MP David Heath to meet the Minister for Schools, Vernon Coaker MP on Tuesday 9th (next week) to discuss the future of a school which has suffered regular flood damage. The meeting will take place at the Department for Children Schools and Families in Whitehall.

Countess Gytha Primary School in Queen Camel has hit the news several times over recent years when the River Cam which runs immediately next to the school breaks its banks. Mr Heath has been helping the governors, teachers and children at the school to campaign for a new school building on a different site to protect it from future flooding. The County Council had agreed provisionally to include the school project in its building program for 2011/2012, but Mr Heath has sought a meeting with the Minister to see if there is any way that that can be brought forward.

David Heath said: "I know how desperately everybody connected with the school wants the new building to go ahead, and it obviously makes financial sense for a new building to be built rather than spending a fortune in continually replacing classrooms ruined by floods, let alone the disruption to the children's education.

The government have said a lot recently about making communities more resilient to flooding, and I'm hoping the minister will point the way towards the financing of the scheme at the earliest possible opportunity. Of course, it also needs the County Council to meet its responsibilities and recognise that this is a scheme which simply can't wait."