By Julie Waters
FIVE local Assembly politicians have written a joint letter to Education Minister Paul Given calling on him to ‘prioritise’ Bangor Central Integrated Primary School’s new build.
The united call for Ministerial action comes after the UK government withdrew funding for 10 building projects in shared and integrated schools, two of which were in North Down.
Building projects at Bangor Central Primary School and Holywood’s Priory Integrated College were halted after the £150m funding package was withdrawn in February this year.
The funding had been ring fenced in the Fresh Start Agreement nearly a decade ago in 2015 but was reallocated in the Treasury’s £3.3bn financial package for the restoration of Stormont’s power sharing executive.
One of North Down’s Alliance MLAs, Connie Egan, who
co-ordinated the joint letter, welcomed the consensus that has been secured among all North Down MLAs to write to the Minister.
“I am pleased to have secured cross-party support to call on the Minister to prioritise the new build project for Bangor Central IPS within his Department,” she said.
The North Down MLA said the politicians had met both with the school principal and governors who were ‘concerned’ at the decision to withdraw funding.
Said Ms Egan: “Teachers, support staff and the whole school community continue to work incredibly hard to ensure that the pupils in their care receive the best possible education.
“This new build project will provide Bangor Central with facilities that match the outstanding quality of teaching and learning provided within the school.
“Plans for the school’s new build are at an advanced stage with planning permission granted for their project. As the school will be moving from their current building on Castle Park Road to a new site on Balloo Road there will be no disruption to the learning of the pupils with the project expected to be completed 18 months later.
“I will continue to engage with Bangor Central IPS, the Education Authority and the Department for Education to ensure that construction of Bangor Central’s new building commences as soon as possible.”