Conservative Councillor Lucy Trimnell has called on Somerset Council to engage with ambitious community-led proposals to transform the former Bruton School for Girls into a Rural Skills & Innovation Campus.
Cllr Trimnell raised the future of the prominent 34-acre site through a written question at Somerset Council's Executive meeting on 2nd September, asking the Liberal Democrat administration to coordinate cross-council engagement with those developing the proposals.
Bruton School for Girls closed suddenly in 2022 after 122 years. In the four years since, the site has suffered extensive vandalism, theft and deterioration, including an attempted arson attack.
Ambitious plans for the site
Sunny Hill For Good CIC, co-founded by Jonathan Duffy, Chairman of Pitcombe Parish Council, where the site is located, is developing a community-led proposal to regenerate the site as a Rural Skills & Innovation Campus serving Somerset.
The vision is to bring together education, skills, enterprise and community life on one rural campus. Potential uses include early years provision, SEND support, further and technical education, apprenticeships and T Levels, agriculture and agri-tech, climate science and practical rural skills.
The wider proposals could also incorporate health and wellbeing, sport, arts and culture, enterprise, affordable housing and opportunities bringing together older and younger generations.
The plans are being developed around identified gaps in provision in this part of Somerset, with the intention of working with existing education providers, employers and community organisations rather than duplicating existing services.
Cllr Trimnell calls for council support
Cllr Trimnell asked Somerset Council to identify a senior officer to coordinate engagement with Sunny Hill For Good and Pitcombe Parish Council, bringing together relevant Executive Members and officers to explore how the council could support the development of the opportunity.
In her question, Cllr Trimnell said the proposals represented considerably more than simply saving an important local site, describing them as an opportunity to create an innovative rural campus addressing gaps in provision and benefiting communities and businesses across Somerset.
Council says there is 'no educational need'
Responding on behalf of the Liberal Democrat administration, Executive Lead Member for Children, Families and Education Cllr Heather Shearer confirmed that Children's Services officers had already visited the site with Cllr Trimnell and others.
However, Cllr Shearer said that from the council's perspective there was "no educational need for this provision", citing the reducing number of children in the local area and existing provision, including sixth-form provision less than 300 metres from the site.
Cllr Lucy Trimnell will continue to champion the potential of the site to be considered as a wider opportunity for skills, enterprise and community-led regeneration in this part of Somerset.
