A PRIMARY school has been dealt a massive blow in its bid to build a community pond. Four Marks Primary School wants to build the wildlife haven in its grounds to enable pupils to get closer to nature and to give villagers another area of open space. To realise its dream, the school applied to East Hampshire District Council, through the parish council, to release £12,725 of the village's developers' contributions - cash handed over by developers towards facilities. But the application received a mixed reception when it came before the council's north west area community committee on Tuesday last week. Some thought it would provide an important amenity for the school and village, but others were worried about vandalism, safety and even feared that the school might choose to keep the pond to itself, and shut out the community. And it eventually came down to acting chairman Chris Graham to take the difficult decision to throw out the application, after the vote was tied. Pat Seward, one of the village's two representatives on the committee, hit out at the application. "Figures from RoSPA say that eight children die in ponds every year. This is an increased risk with a school and a playschool on the campus," she said. "Four Marks village has an excellent pond within a quarter of a mile of the school grounds. Why have two ponds so close together? The headteacher has said it will be open to the public. Headteachers move on, taking their decisions with them. "We only have £60,000 of developers' contributions. There are much more worthwhile projects in the pipeline. If we get permission to take over the area outside the shops, we will need a lot more than £60,000. Developers already contribute towards education and the new baseline site will contribute more than £140,000 to the school for the education budget. The school did have a pond years ago but it silted up, dried up and fell into disrepair due to lack of maintenance. How can we be so sure it won't happen again." But parish councillor Anne Storey hit back, stressing that the pond would be open to the public. "It has already been agreed that it will be in the headteacher's contract that it will have to be open to the public 24 hours a day and seven days a week," she said. Mrs Storey added that the increase in pupil numbers, as a result of the housing influx in the village, meant that the original pond was no longer big enough. "The poor tadpoles were being fished out several times a day for the children to use for educational purposes," she said. Mrs Storey pointed out that to visit the existing pond at Swelling Hill, the children had to walk along a narrow country lane and a number of volunteers were needed to supervise the children on every trip to satisfy health and safety regulations. This would restrict the number of visits the school could make. If there was a pond in school, she added, the pupils would be able to enjoy it all the time, with staff supervision. Responding to concerns about safety, Mrs Storey said: "All the edges would be graded so you are not stepping into a deep area." She added: "It is very important that children learn how to behave around water." Mrs Storey added that the cash from the development of the baseline site was needed for extra classrooms. John Smith, who represents Alton Westbrooke, wanted assurance that members of the public would not be able to wander on to other parts of the school grounds while accessing the pond. He was assured that the gate to the school from the pond would be kept locked at all times and only the access to the pond from the road would be open around the clock. Maurice Johnson, the village's other representative on the committee, said: "If it is opened to the public it seems to me an ideal venue for the idiots of the locality to indulge in a considerable amount of vandalism." I cannot see who can be there to monitor the behaviour of visitors to the facility and that is a very great concern of mine. I'm very uneasy about it." Mrs Storey said the school already had CCTV and this could be extended to the pond area if necessary.
