The Parish Council has this morning sent the following statement to local media:

Stoke Poges Parish Council and residents of the village have vowed to maintain their campaign against a Secondary School being permanently sited in the Green Belt of their historic rural village. This is despite the DfE’s ill-informed decision to locate a Secondary School at the Pioneer House site in Stoke Poges for a year, under recently introduced “Permitted Development Rights” legislation which gave the Secretary of State the power to grant permission for any building to be used as a school for 12 months.

Saera Carter, Vice-Chairman of the Parish Council, commented: “We are extremely disappointed that a school catering primarily for Slough’s need has been imposed on a village that doesn’t want or need a secondary school. This whole process has been completely flawed and residents of the village feel like their views and opinions have been ignored by the Department for Education, despite assurances from Lord Nash that the democratic process would be respected.”

The Parish Council is confident that the legislation only grants use of a site for 12 months and is optimistic that the Department for Education will see sense and find locations in Slough to meet the educational needs of the children of Slough. The residents of Stoke Poges will continue their campaign of lobbying the Department for Education, Dominic Grieve MP and other elected representatives, whilst the Parish Council retains its mandate from the village to resort to a legal challenge should it be necessary.