|
|
 |
| |
The north-south divide on schools
WE don’t wish to pour cold water on what appears to be an imaginative set of ideas proposed by the new Lib Dem and Tory coalition leaders on the future of our schools, but what on Earth got into their heads when they turned their backs on a new school for the south of the borough (see pages 6-7)?
For some reason commonsense and the Town Hall seem to part company at such strategic moments.
It happened in the 1990s when a question mark hung over the secondary school St Richard of Chichester in Kentish Town.
Members of the controlling body, the Catholic diocese, wanted to close it. As did a great many councillors, both Labour and Tory.
But teachers as well as residents and this newspaper argued passionately against a closure saying it would speed up the haemorrhaging of secondary school places.
However, St Richard’s bit the dust, school places shrunk, and today the politicians are trying to put together a new mosaic of ideas.
We can only support the generous proposals to spend extra money on all the old secondary schools. While education in Camden has been streets ahead of most other boroughs in London since the 1960s, our schools can only benefit from what could be described in part as an almost extravagant plan.
But inescapably we are dragged back to the neglected south of the borough. This part of Camden has been crying out for a secondary school for decades. In the north there are several. In the south – none.
Here was a golden chance to make amends.
Land is too expensive, say the council. That may be so. But where are the figures on the Eastman Dental Hospital site as well as the site behind the British Library? Where’s the detail? Grand statements may sound good, but they are not enough. We do not wish to be churlish but facts, facts and more facts are required before a proper reasoned response can be made to this vision of the future.
Finally, consider the King’s Cross redevelopment scheme – the biggest building project in Europe.
The final details of this great scheme have still not been worked out. Are we really expected to believe that in this vast hinterland – where one day will virtually stand a new city – there isn’t enough space for a new secondary school?
Before the council’s proposals become set in stone far more debate is required – otherwise, it will be the St Richard’s fiasco all over again. |
| |
|
|
|
