Bristol Free School's bumpy ride

Could free schools be a key part of the 'Big Society'?

Will "localism" ever really get off the ground?

It's one of the government's big visions: citizens taking control of their own destinies, and weaning themselves off reliance on the state.

But the experience of some parents in Bristol may be enough to dampen the most hardy "localist".

They're trying to get a new Free School off the ground - one of only a handful in the country with government pre-approval, an education backer, a possible head and children wanting to get in.

Bristol Free School prospectus

What they lack is a site.

They want to use council-owned land, and that's where it has all got sticky.

Relationships between the council, the Department for Education and the Free School Trust seem to have broken down.

Recriminations are flying and time is tight: if the school is to open on the site by September, it needs to get moving: parents must decide their children's secondary places within weeks, and local council elections have a habit of slowing down decision-making.

At a recent public meeting about this, one councillor - to paraphrase - told parents that "passion" wasn't enough.

Another threw up "legal and financial" obstacles to the free school, worried about parking and planning permission for the site.

Will it get done? Or will the free school have to go elsewhere?

Other sites may be available, but would have a detrimental impact on other secondary schools in the area, which are already under-subscribed.

In truth, no one really knows.

What it does show though - considering the free school plans have been active for about 18 months - is how hard it can be to get anything done on this scale without buy-in from the existing branches of government, in this case, the council - and to some extent, DfE.

Encouraging people to be active in their community only works, surely, if it's successful.

If not, localism could end up actually increasing cynicism - and undermining its very raison d'etre.