One of the few duties that Local Authorities still has in relation to schools is to ensure that there are adequate places for the school age population.
That is why they are given a role in determining the number of places at each school. The way that all school funding now works is that schools receive their funding based on the number of pupils they attract. So if one school increases the number of pupils it has then another school looses pupils and money. This could make a school struggle and close. All the more likely given the cuts that are on the way.
Kirklees had to make a decision on an application by a school to create more places. The logic of creating more places was probably the right decision for the school and parents involved, who do not have any duty to look beyond their own school. But the Cabinet received advice that the extra places created could put other schools at risk and so refused the application. The school have a right to appeal the decision, and might well win the appeal on the basis of their argument for their own school.
The parents, and others, involved in the campaign complained that the decision was being made on financial grounds, in a way they were right but what is also true, as in most things money can not be ignored. Schools are financed and the consequences of the way the schools are financed as an effect on other schools. Even education cannot call on an unlimited funds.
Parental choice has been supported by all political parties in government, but parties in government do not have to suffer from the consequences of not being able to plan to meet the needs of all children by ensuring there are adequate school places. It might by alright to leave the price of fish to the variances of the market, but the planning of school places requires a bit more thought, and the consequences of children and families in loosing local schools is a price too high to leave school places to market whims. Schools can not be opened instantly, and they definably can't be opened if the government will not pay.
None of this can be used to criticize the parents who want the best for their children in fighting for what they believe is the best.
