School is due to lose out on more than £200,000 (From Braintree and Witham Times)

School is due to lose out on more than £200,000

9:00am Wednesday 16th December 2009

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A school is set to be forced to hand back more than £200,000 - despite having already allocated most of it for improvements.

Tabor Science College in Braintree has been told it will have to give back £201,997 to Essex County Council.

But it had already earmarked just under £170,000 for projects such as new toilets, replacing a sports surface, and general building improvements and maintenance.

The council's “balance control mechanism” means it can “claw back” funds from schools with unspent balances at the end of the financial year.

Tabor Science College is expected to be the hardest hit out of 11 schools across Essex which have balances subject to clawback for 2008/09.

The mechanism, which was laid down by the Government, means secondary schools can carry forward to the following financial year five per cent of surplus balances, a lump sum of £30,000 and certain exceptions.

Cash for capital projects is supposed to be exempt, but the Panfield Lane school lost an appeal.

Tabor headteacher Steven Clark said some plans would be able to go ahead, but others would have to be put on hold.

He said: “Where we are most disappointed is we have actually shown what we want to use all of that funding for, but the process has not accepted that and I really actually don’t know why.”

He was “disappointed” about the appeal decision, which the school was informed of by phone, because it would affect pupils.

The clawback mechanism, which came into force in Essex from 2008/09, will see the cash redistributed to all the county’s schools.

Essex County Council spokesman Michael Page said the Essex Schools Forum had supported the £201,997 deduction, but it needed to be ratified by the county council.

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