I Can't find this topic on the board about this so thought I'd get one going.
I'm afraid as much as I want our children to have the best for them, I'm horrified at the thought of building on greenbelt land.
The proposed building is totally out of character with it's surroundings and I believe road access is inadequate.
More children will be driven than presently walk because of the distance.

Are there any other sites around Ilkley that have been proposed as alternatives?

Wouldn't it make more sense to have a new school serving Burley & Menston, then IGS can stay where it is and be plenty large enough.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have a new school serving Burley & Menston, then IGS can stay where it is and be plenty large enough.

bob wrote:
Wouldn't it make more sense to have a new school serving Burley & Menston, then IGS can stay where it is and be plenty large enough.

There is a very good school in Menston already (St Marys) however a high proportion of the kids are bussed in from nth Leeds leaving fewer places for local kids. If the selection policy was changed to favour local kids only then I agree, IGS stays where it is with no impact on green belt. By the way this is not an anti faith school post just think we need to use scarse resources more effectively.

I think 2 smaller schools would be better too - also sugggested in this week's Gasjet (scroll down to 'Smaller would be better').

Is St Mary's Bradford or Leeds then? Can they bus children over a county divide? And many parents won't want to send their kids to a Catholic school.

What about the other way? Silsden/Keighley?

Where do all the extra IGS kids come from? I'm sure it was only Ilkley, Burley and Addingham when I went there.

King in a Catholic Style....

[word censored] de greenbelt. Thats what the council are saying.

Thorndyke wrote:
[word censored] de greenbelt. Thats what the council are saying.

And not just the council. That the stretch of land next to Ghyll Royd on the north side of the BIW by-pass may well be sold to housing developers when conditions improve...another classroom full of kids for the new school.

Oh joy. What we need is an epidemic to cull the population. Given that the world's population is predicted to reach many billions more over the next 30 odd years, it's what the planet needs. That or habitats in space, or a planet we can populate. There's not enough room or resources to support the human race growing at this rate.

(Grimly) You're right, MM - without coming over all Daily Mail, our kid's kids are going to have a lot to deal with.

I seem to recall that we were all going to run out of food sometime back in the 1970s.

Don't worry - I'm sure the apocalypse (for humans) will come at the appropriate time, and a new cockroach-based life-form will make a better job of it that we ever managed.

King Cogidubnus wrote:
I seem to recall that we were all going to run out of food sometime back in the 1970s.

Don't worry - I'm sure the apocalypse (for humans) will come at the appropriate time, and a new cockroach-based life-form will make a better job of it that we ever managed.

....must...resist...going...off...topic...

I don't think you'll find many cockroaches in Ilkley's greenbelt. You might Find some newts though, and they are amongst the last things developers want to find on land they are going to build on.

Something definitely has to be done about the existing grammar school site as this is far too small to safely house the existing students, in addition to the problems of feeding them, hence the mass exodus into Greggs at lunchtime.

Two smaller schools would be far more suitable than one enormous one, but then there is still the issue of where to build.

We used to live in Menston and one of many reasons for moving to Ilkley was to be closer to the GS. Menston is very much out on a limb, being a little spike into the Leeds area, whilst technically still being in Bradford. At one point Menston children were unable to attend IGS because of numbers and Guiseley School was becoming increasingly full due to High Royds.

A few years ago there were all sorts of rumours about Menston children being shipped into Bradford. My geeky son would be eaten alive in a Bradford school. Some went to Prince Henry's but that's in Leeds area too.

There is no easy solution. If they do end up building in Ben Rhydding there has to be a huge amount of thought put into providing alternative transport; safe cycle lanes etc