I think it depends on what's available to your area, and what your child's interests are.
Personally, I think independent school was a waste of money for me - my parents could have spent half the money developing my special skillsets (I was a music scholar), and on tutoring rather than on the independent school itself.
There was a lot of bullying that still went on within the school, and the teachers tended to side with the bullies. I used to often think the school would be ok if 90% of the students weren't in it!
The independent school I went to was very good for sports in particular, and had a number of arts departments. However, I feel that if a parent were to spend the same amount of money paying for holiday courses, or extra-curricular clubs, or tutoring then they would actually achieve more. Furthermore, children would have the advantage of mixing with others from different social groups to themselves which I think is a massive advantage.
Some of the kids I went to school with had disgusting attitudes towards those with less economically fortunate positions to themselves. One girl used to throw her coins into the bin because she didn't want them to ruin her purse!