From the Bath Chronicle:
http://tinyurl.com/3obfvh
Dyson drops Bath school plan
Tuesday, October 07, 2008, 19:34
Vacuum cleaner pioneer Sir James Dyson tonight scrapped plans for a £56
million school in Bath.
The millionnaire businessman said he would not be building his Dyson
School of Design Innovation in the city - or anywhere else.
The scheme for the old Stothert and Pitt site at South Quays faced the
costly delay of a public inquiry scheduled to start in January.
The school, which had originally been due to open this autumn, could
not have accepted its first students until the year 2012.
His educational charity the James Dyson Foundation had already ploughed
£3.5 million of its money into planning the school and had spent four
years on developing the project.
The school would have taught cutting edge engineering to teenagers from
all over the south west, with £12.5 million funding from the foundation
as well as financial backing from other industrial giants and the
Learning and Skills Council.
Sir James, who began his engineering career with city firm Rotork, had
been keen to build the school in Bath.
Bath and North East Somerset Council had backed the school but, because
of opposition from the Environment Agency on flood prevention grounds,
the final decision rested with local government minister Baroness
Andrews.
In August, she effectively began sounding the death knell for the
school by calling the public inquiry.
That process was completed earlier this week when an application for
funding from a new Government skills academy initiative was rejected.
Tonight Sir James said: “Faced with a planning inquiry and this
Government’s recent rejection of our funding proposal, we have no
choice but to abandon the plans for the school. We deeply regret
having to give up on the opportunity to provide an exciting education
for our young people.”
He said he was still determined to help young people in the field of
education: “We now intend to find another way to nurture young
engineers - this time on our own terms.”
In August, Sir James had written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown -
attaching a copy of a Chronicle leader column backing his school - to
ask the Premier for help.
He pointed out education ministers had been delighted with his plans -
but that another minister had dealt the scheme a potentially fatal blow.
The letter concluded: "I was invited by Government to do something
about our chronic lack of engineers - something that I truly believe
in; yet it is Government that has killed off this project."
His architect's latest designs incorporated part of the facade of the
Stothert and Pitt Newark Works.
He had looked at a string of sites in Bath and been wooed by civic
leaders in places such as Swindon and as far afield as the USA.
---------
http://tinyurl.com/3obfvh
Dyson drops Bath school plan
Tuesday, October 07, 2008, 19:34
Vacuum cleaner pioneer Sir James Dyson tonight scrapped plans for a £56
million school in Bath.
The millionnaire businessman said he would not be building his Dyson
School of Design Innovation in the city - or anywhere else.
The scheme for the old Stothert and Pitt site at South Quays faced the
costly delay of a public inquiry scheduled to start in January.
The school, which had originally been due to open this autumn, could
not have accepted its first students until the year 2012.
His educational charity the James Dyson Foundation had already ploughed
£3.5 million of its money into planning the school and had spent four
years on developing the project.
The school would have taught cutting edge engineering to teenagers from
all over the south west, with £12.5 million funding from the foundation
as well as financial backing from other industrial giants and the
Learning and Skills Council.
Sir James, who began his engineering career with city firm Rotork, had
been keen to build the school in Bath.
Bath and North East Somerset Council had backed the school but, because
of opposition from the Environment Agency on flood prevention grounds,
the final decision rested with local government minister Baroness
Andrews.
In August, she effectively began sounding the death knell for the
school by calling the public inquiry.
That process was completed earlier this week when an application for
funding from a new Government skills academy initiative was rejected.
Tonight Sir James said: “Faced with a planning inquiry and this
Government’s recent rejection of our funding proposal, we have no
choice but to abandon the plans for the school. We deeply regret
having to give up on the opportunity to provide an exciting education
for our young people.”
He said he was still determined to help young people in the field of
education: “We now intend to find another way to nurture young
engineers - this time on our own terms.”
In August, Sir James had written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown -
attaching a copy of a Chronicle leader column backing his school - to
ask the Premier for help.
He pointed out education ministers had been delighted with his plans -
but that another minister had dealt the scheme a potentially fatal blow.
The letter concluded: "I was invited by Government to do something
about our chronic lack of engineers - something that I truly believe
in; yet it is Government that has killed off this project."
His architect's latest designs incorporated part of the facade of the
Stothert and Pitt Newark Works.
He had looked at a string of sites in Bath and been wooed by civic
leaders in places such as Swindon and as far afield as the USA.
---------