Free School Transport: Brandon and Mildenhall Briefing

The fourth and final area affected by free school transport is Mildenhall and Brandon. In September the Breckland Middle School in Brandon will close and the new IES Brandon run by a profit making Swedish company will open on the same site.

Children in Brandon would usually have gone to Mildenhall College of Technology when they left Breckland Middle.

There is some background on my Blog to the Brandon story.

The map of the proposal is shown below:


This is a summary of the Suffolk County Council proposals:

Transport is provided to Mildenhall College of Technology for students who live within the catchment area. A new free school in Brandon would have no catchment area, but the law requires that academies (including free schools) are treated the same when it comes to transport.

If this new school is approved by Government, the county council proposes, as an interim measure, to make free transport available to it for students who live in the Mildenhall College of Technology catchment area for the school year 2012/13 (subject to the normal distance criteria). Transport will also be provided to Mildenhall College in 2012/13 as normal.

This transport solution is not sustainable in the longer term. This is because there will be duplication of transport across this area which is not a cost-effective way of providing transport.

It is proposed to create new transport priority areas from the existing Mildenhall College catchment area by dividing it into two, using nearest school as the means of determining these areas. These new areas would come into effect from September 2013 onwards. (see map)

Some parts of Lakenheath (to the south) are nearest to Mildenhall College. Other parts (to the north) are nearest to the proposed new free school. Rather than split this community it is proposed to make transport available to both schools from Lakenheath. This “shared” area is shaded on the map.

You can download the full consultation document from the Suffolk County Council Website.

Consultation Meetings Remaining (7-9pm):
Breckland Middle School: Thursday 10 May
Mildenhall College of Technology: Monday 14 May
Samuel Ward Academy: Tuesday 15 May 
Beccles Middle School: Monday 21 May
Sudbury Upper School: Tuesday 22 May


Note: I plan to attend the Brandon meeting tonight and there will be a Live Blog on this site