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Investor’s plans are thrown out
PFI school’s late-night parties bid
PRIVATE investors Kajima Europe were last night (Wednesday) told to forget about their plans to use Haverstock School for nightly concerts and music events.
The company has already been accused of profiteering from its control of the Haverstock Hill school by renting out classrooms and sports pitches at expensive rates.
Kajima had wanted the right to keep the main building open for nightly events, some of which had been planned to run until midnight.
Under Kajima’s plans, alcohol could have been consumed on the premises – although not sold on site.
A Kajima statement said: “If there is anything that might be considered inappropriate to children, steps will be taken to prevent young people from accessing the event.”
But councillors yesterday (Wednesday) threw out a licence application at a Town Hall meeting after hearing concerns from residents.
The mix of objections included puzzlement at why a school wanted to be used for night-time entertainment and worries about late night noise.
Haverstock has been completely transformed under a Private Finance Initiative agreed between Kajima and the Town Hall.
The sparkling new building has been used as a way to promote the benefits of PFI to other schools.
The school achieved Business and Enterprise status with help from sponsorship from Apax Holdings, a private equity firm whose chairman is Labour donor Sir Ronald Cohen.
But while the school has racked up the laurels for its facelift and new popularity, there has been unrest not far from the school’s gates.
The New Journal revealed in March how neighbours had filed complaints about the school’s loud late-night activities and called in environmental health officers to investigate.
And when some sports teams tried to book pitches, they found the tariff was too high.
Under the terms of Kajima’s deal with Camden, the building is a school from 8am to 6pm in term time, but can be used for other purposes at other times. Key to Kajima’s licence plan was use of the brand new performance theatre for plays and music concerts.
Kajima leisure manager Chris Smith told last night’s meeting: “It was thought early on that the facilities could be made use of by the local community.”
In an earlier written statement, he said: “Guests will be asked to be considerate to local residents when leaving and asked to keep the noise down. The types of events would include theatrical and musical performances, concerts, private parties, dances and conferences.”
Objector Karen Smit, who lives nearby, said: “I do not understand why a school needs to have a licence to entertain for seven nights a week until midnight.”
Conservative councillor Rebecca Hossack, who chaired the decisive meeting, said: “We think the residents are already suffering enough from public nuisance.”
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