Casterton Business and Enterprise College will run Rutland County College, which will replace The Rutland College from September.

Many parents, teachers and students had objected to the plans during a six-week consultation period because Catmose College in Oakham and Uppingham Community College are not involved.

The Rutland College is currently run by Tresham College, which has announced it will withdraw from Rutland next year. But it will work with the county council and Casterton while the new college is established.

Casterton will be the admissions authority and its principal Victoria Crosher will become the principal of Rutland County College. It will eventually build a new college to replace The Rutland College site.

After a debate lasting nearly three hours, councillors agreed by a majority vote to make Casterton an 11 to 19 school with some sixthform provision and for the council to become a member of the Rutland County College Trust which will give strategic direction.

The council also agreed to meet any funding shortfall for the new building .

Seven councillors voted against the recommendations while 15 backed them.

Uppingham Community College principal Jan Turner and Stuart Williams, principal of Catmose College in Oakham, had called on councillors to think carefully before backing the plans. They wanted to pursue the council's original plan for a standalone sixthform college with equal input from all three schools.

Both withdrew from talks after being told in August 2009 that Casterton had been chosen as the admissions authority. A council report said Uppingham and Catmose had been nervous about transferring assets to the trust or giving money to it.

Coun Heather Wells (Con), who is responsible for education, warned councillors that the proposal was the only option to secure post-16 education in Rutland because Tresham has announced it will withdraw from the county next year.

Coun Wells said there was no other feasible option available to the council.

"In September Tresham will be gone," she said. "If we defer a decision today this will leave us with no post-16 provision. That is the reality."

Coun Wells said the new college had to be attached to one of the three existing secondary schools because there would not be enough students for a standalone college to be viable.

Government approval would be needed for a standalone college but Coun Wells said it would be unlikely to meet with approval. She said: "We would be insane to commit resources to it and rightly criticised."
She said another option, to have three secondary schools with their own sixthforms and a single board of governors, would have been a "dillution" of the schools' diversities.

Coun Vijay Dighe (Con) said: "It has taken us 18 months to arrive where we are tonight. We do not have another year to reinvent the wheel. They (Tresham) are not legally bound to help us."

Coun Marc Oxley (Lib Dem) complained that discussions had been taking place at informal cabinet meetings where no minutes were taken.
Referring to a report to Monday's meeting by director of children and young people's services Carol Chambers, he said: "This document is the first time we have seen any flesh on the bones of these plans."

Prompting a round of applause, Coun Oxley added: "There are seven cabinet members and 19 others . As far as democracy is concerned I personally don't believe this has been looked at properly by this council."

Coun Trevor Lovell (Ind) said: "Two of the three colleges clearly oppose and I want to ask how we got this far.

"We are a very small authority and maybe it is time to admit there are some things we can't do due to our lack of size. This proposal will always struggle to get the numbers needed."

Putting forward an amendment asking for a "brief delay" while there was further discussion between the three schools, Coun Richard Gale (Ind) said: "There is a better option. It just needs to be explored. I don't think we have found the best solution to put the best possible education for students in Rutland first."

Coun Peter Jones (Con) argued a delay in making a decision would be unfair to students and Coun Hugh Rees (Con) backed the proposals saying: "It has been made extremely clear there will be no post-16 education. We may lose it for a year but we may lose it for a generation."

But Coun Peter Ind (Ind) said people's views should be taken on board. He said: "We should take note of the consultation and I don' t see much support for it. If we don't get all three colleges on board we won't get the numbers.

"This has been ongoing for 18 months and we need to learn a lesson from this. We lost a year over this and now we haven't got a month to consider anything else.

"I think there is going to be a shortfall which means the long-suffering rate payers are going to have to pick up the bill. The business model is overly optimistic and I don't think this is going to work."

The amendment was defeated by a vote of 13 to eight with one abstention.
Coun Peter Golden (Lib Dem) said he felt "ashamed" to be a councillor at the first of three public meetings held at Rutland County Museum as part of the six-week consultation.

He said: "In all my years on this council I have never felt so embarrassed. It was an ill-tempered shambles. The council did not explain its position.

"The hope is now that two of the colleges will come round and join as junior partners but they will never be equal. There is no plan B but that is not a sufficient reason for me to support this proposal."

Deputy leader Terry King (Con) defended the consultation process saying it was a "view-seeking" exercise and said the proposals were an "investment" in Rutland students.

He said: "What is plan B? If we spend six months going through the new plan what are we left with? Why should young people in a rural area have to travel 20 miles for an education?"

Coun Jones said the consultation could be interpreted in many ways and said it was "human nature" for those who opposed plans to come forward and make their voices heard.

Concluding the debate ahead of the vote, Coun Wells said: "We have heard a lot about children and the excellence we want for our community. Education is something we do incredibly well and we want to extend that excellent provision.

"We see children right the way through and if we lose the post-16 we lose that opportunity. We will continue to work with Uppingham and Catmose to bring them into the trust and we are talking to other providers.

"I commend this to you and ask you to support it."

Just 42 members of the public had turned out to hear the debate. There was space for 169 people.