Government urged to rethink destroying Walsall woodland for new school as there's one completely empty nearby

Labour MP Valerie Vaz raised the issue in general debate at Westminster Hall in a bid to save taxpayers’ money.

The woodland at Reedswood Park in Walsall was selected by the Department of Education as a potential site for a new Special Educational Needs free school. Earlier this year feasibility studies were carried out to determine the suitability of the site. Meanwhile, three miles from the proposed build stands an empty school on Vernon Way.

Valerie Vaz said the empty school is a ‘perfectly viable building’ for the new SEN facility and that it was ‘inappropriate’ to build a school at the Reedswood Park woodland, which was created to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.

She also said that Joseph Leckie Academy in Walsall has offered to expand its provision of school places to address the shortage in the area.

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She said: “Head teachers in the area have suggested that (the existing school) could be used as a special school but instead public money is being used to destroy the vegetation at Reedswood Park to build a special free school.

“I hope the minister will take this back to the secretary of state to ensure public money is used to expand the current schools rather than to build a new school.”

The former Sneyd Community school is located on green belt, just north of Rough Wood Country Park and Sneyd Nature Reserve. In April 2024, Walsall Council submitted a planning application to demolish the school building to make way for 73 homes.

Councillor Garry Perry, leader of the Walsall Council, boldly said in the authority’s latest cabinet meeting that any development on green belt ‘would not be in his name’, but in the deputy prime minister’s name.

At the meeting Cllr Perry said: “It’s my intention that nothing is built on the green belt in my name. It may be built in Angela Rayner’s name but it won’t be in this administration’s name.”

A decision is expected to be made next month on whether to grant outline planning permission for the green belt development.