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BEDLAM IN BEDS
COUNCIL chiefs in Bedfordshire scrapped a consultation to rebuild a special school in desperate need of repair – three weeks after launching the process.
The hiccup is the latest for Central Bedfordshire Council’s (CBC) renovation of Ivel Valley School, the only special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school in the east of the area. Redevelopment by Independent-led CBC, which has no overall control, has stalled since being mooted in 2022. Around 250 pupils, many profoundly disabled, languish in cramped, unheated classrooms propped up with MDF. CBC’s cack-handed calculations have varied wildly between £40m and £60m. Now it has “temporarily withdrawn” the consultation, blaming “misinformation” over options, which included its preference for a site upgrade and parents’ hopes for a new school. Surely this “misinformation” was not public concern about CBC’s preferred option?