Council lodges funding bid to replace unsafe Northumberland primary school
The Government has been asked to pay for a new building for a Northumberland primary school deemed unsafe for children.
Mowbray Primary School, in Stakeford, did not reopen its doors after the Christmas holidays last year due to structural concerns.
Engineers discovered that cracking and wall movement in the 1920s school building had become “widespread and progressive”, with pupils having since been relocated to a temporary base at Foundry House in Bedlington.
Northumberland County Council chiefs have now confirmed that they have lodged a bid for funding to build a replacement school.
County Hall bosses expect to find out in spring 2027 whether their application to the Government’s School Rebuilding Programme has been successful.
Audrey Kingham, the council’s executive director of children, young people and education, told councillors that she would “wait with bated breath” to find out if the Department for Education would back the project.
Speaking at the authority’s corporate services and economic growth scrutiny committee, she also confirmed that a contingency plan would be developed for next year’s council budget to provide an alternative option if the Government rejects the bid.
The council later told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that pupils are expected to remain at Foundry House until next Easter and that insurance investigations into the cracks at Mowbray Primary School continue.
A council spokesperson said: “The current plan is that pupils will be remaining at Foundry House until Easter 2027 – allowing pupils, their families and staff to stay focused on preparing for a settled start to the new academic year this September at their new temporary school.
“Insurers for Mowbray Primary School have been investigating and monitoring the causes of the cracking for a number of months and this work continues.
“In the meantime, the county council have applied for funding from the Government for a new build for Mowbray Primary School under the “School Rebuilding Programme”, with a decision on this due in Spring 2027.”