Greg Watkins, for the Parish Council, and the leader of Surrey County Council, Nick Skellett, sign the deal.
Behind them are Bob David, District Councillor, Sandy Phillibert, Parish Councillor, Ian Lake, County Council Executive Member,
David Hodge, County Councillor, Carol Jordan, Parish Councillor and John Sandiford, Parish Clerk
Photo by David Bishop

NEW SCHOOL DEAL SIGNED – HISTORIC DAY FOR TATSFIELD

Under a deal concluded on 26 March, Tatsfield will at last get its new primary school. If all goes well, it will open in two years’ time on an eight acre village centre site on the south side of Ship Hill, 160 years after it was founded on the outskirts of the village in Church Lane.

Tatsfield Parish Council and neighbouring property owner Gordon Reeve have handed over land next to the Village Hall, Surgery and Parish Room to enable Surrey County Council to build the school. The deal will bring new joint road access to the school and to the existing parish facilities. Pedestrian access to the school will be through Parish land. There will be community use of the school ‘after hours’ and the prospect of a multi-use games area for local people.

Parish Council Chairman, Ian Mitchell, said:

“More than four years after Surrey first announced the school would move, we can at last look forward to the day that Tatsfield’s children will get the school they deserve. With the exchange of contracts, we hope that the succession of unexplained delays is now behind us and that building work on the Ł5.5m project will proceed smoothly in time for the new school to open in early 2010”.

Vice-Chairman, Jon Allbutt, said:

“This is great news indeed and a great opportunity to provide additional recreational facilities that will be of direct benefit to both the school and the whole community. The school, working with the Tatsfield Youth Project and Tandridge District Council, has now secured a Ł50,000 Lottery Grant to provide a Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) within the site at the rear of the Parish Room. This need has been identified in successive Village Appraisals and the Parish Council looks forward now to seeing the results of a lot of hard work to secure a new community school”

Greg Watkins, the Parish Council’s representative Governor of Tatsfield School, said:

“At last, the way is clear for the diggers to enter the site and the first bricks to be laid. I am very much looking forward to working in partnership with Surrey, the school, and the builders as we move forward to occupying this state-of-the-art school.”