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Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 19 July 2007

UCL throws down the gauntlet at Town Hall

Pick us now or forget about school sponsorship, college warns

UNIVERSITY College London is playing hardball with the Town Hall over its proposed sponsorship of a new school, offering a clear message: Pick us now or forget about it.
The Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition is to make a crunch decision on Wednesday night to either take on the university as a sponsor for a new City Academy-style school or to stage an open competition for control of the flagship project.
Significantly, UCL has impressed council officials working out how Camden can best spend a £200 million windfall from government and its bid is heavily promoted in an advisory document released to public eyes for the first time on Tuesday.
In the report – the content of which was largely revealed in the New Journal last week – council officials call on councillors to take on UCL or risk losing their interest forever.
“UCL has explained that it would not enter a competition,” the dossier said. “It wants to work with the council through a collaborative process not a competitive one.”
The report will be digested by the Lib Dem and Conservative cabinet for another seven days before a final decision is reached.
Insiders said it is extremely unlikely that councillors will stray from the advice of their officers because they fear an open competition would take the decision out of their hands. Several backbenchers have privately urged their senior colleagues to go with UCL.
Choosing the university outright would kibosh the hopes of campaigners calling for the new school to be a traditional community school.
“It would also sideline a rival bid from the Church of England. Bizarrely, council officials reveal in the report that the Town Hall might lose out in an open competition if it was to try and win it with a bid for a council-run comprehensive.
“There is significant risk that the council would not win,” it said. “If this happened it could harm the standing of the borough in the eyes of the community.”
As widely-predicted, the report also makes miserable reading for parents in the south of the borough. The council said it had been unable to find a site to help families in neighbourhoods such as Bloomsbury and Holborn.
Camden’s Conservative schools chief Councillor Andrew Mennear said: “Whichever way the council’s Executive decides to go – for a UCL sponsored Academy or a competition – residents will see big improvements taking place to secondary education in Camden, which is great news for the borough’s young people.”
Liberal Democrat Councillor John Bryant, who holds the children’s portfolio, said: “UCL has told us they want to work within our existing educational policies and of its wish for the new school to work alongside the others in the family of Camden’s schools.
“Many of the responses to our consultation exercise called for key values such as community cohesion and genuine inclusion in any new school and UCL are embracing these values in their vision.”

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