Cheshire East Council's to-be-shut HQ could become school for SEND children
Westfields, the home of Cheshire East Council is set to close, with staff being moved to Macclesfield or Crewe.
And now, it has been revealed that Cheshire East's Sandbach base looks set to become a school for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The closure decision was taken at a meeting of the council's corporate policy committee at the end of last November, as part of the 'workplace' programme as Nub News revealed here.
Located on the site of a 19th century mansion house, the former home of the Foden family, the iconic truck business on which Sandbach's fortunes were built, was knocked down to make way for the new council HQ.
Westfields, of Sandbach's Middlewich Road, opened in 2008 as the headquarters of the then-Congleton Borough Council, before it became part of Cheshire East, which contains Macclesfield, when the authority was formed in 2009.
But now according to a BBC story here, it's been revealed that the preferred option for the building is to use the site as a SEND free school funded by the Department for Education.
A Cheshire East councillor has welcomed the news of the potential new use of the site.
Sandbach Elworth Cheshire East councillor, Cllr Nicola Cook, a member of Cheshire East Council's children and families committee, said: "Any child has the right to go to school as near to home as possible.
"Local schools enable children to feel part of a community. It enables children to build friendship groups that can become a network for life and enables parents and carers to have a school choice which enables life to be manageable.
"For all too long, too many children with special educational needs have had to travel too far, away from home and friends to access the education young people deserve.
"I am absolutely delighted with this news and will ensure that Sandbach is seen as an area for inclusive and accessible education, which will be perfectly located at the centre of our two existing high schools. This news will change the lives of young people, parents, carers and families."
Cheshire East Council has been approached for a comment as well as the chair of children and families committee, Cllr Carol Bulman, a Middlewich councillor and Cllr Laura Crane, Sandbach Ettiley Heath and Wheelock, also a committee member and a special educational needs and disabilities champion.
The news comes just days after a SEND school in Crewe completed refurbishment, and weeks after Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson recently said "We need to have a conversation about how we look to reform the system overall," in regards to SEND education.
Macclesfield parliamentarian Tim Roca MP, also recently spoke to Macclesfield Nub News about SEND provision, coming in a future article.
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