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Is it Victory in Wren Street for new school campaign?
After years of pressure, Town Hall finally begin work on secondary school site in Holborn
THE Town Hall has finally bowed to decades of public pressure and for the first time agreed to work on opening a new school in Holborn.
Camden’s schools chief Councillor Andrew Mennear told colleagues on Monday night that council-owned lock-ups in Wren Street could be transformed into a new secondary school.
It is the first time the council has departed from its line that there is nowhere south of Euston Road to build one.
“The council has been considering how best to secure the potential use of the Wren Street site for a school in the future, depending on the need for school places at the time,” a briefing note circulated around the Town Hall confirmed.
The shift has been regarded among councillors as a triumph for parent campaigners who found the site through their own research.
The Where Is My School? campaign – organised by volunteers from across the borough’s southern wards – was last night (Wednesday) heralded for its determination and refusal to accept the council’s line that “exhaustive” searches had failed to find a suitable site.
Cllr Mennear is ready to brave his department’s potential embarrassment and will also deal with pressure to acknowledge the contribution of Labour’s Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson, who has lobbied government to take an interest in a new school in central London.
Cllr Mennear said on Tuesday: “I don’t think anybody doubted the concern of people involved in the campaign and we welcome the work that they have done – and always said we would work with them.”
The council is wary that it must deal sensitively with the leases currently agreed on the lock-ups and after that it will have to show government that there is need for a new school.
But Cllr Mennear is aware of the historic nature of the new commitment: “This is a positive step forward: progress has been made. It is a moment for reflecting on a common goal.
“Clearly I am of the view that there is a case for extra school places in the area – we just didn’t have the site before.”
Parents, who have consistently warned that the scramble for school places every year leaves them with nowhere to send their children, know there are still hurdles ahead.
It has also escaped nobody’s attention that the pledge to help comes as political parties begin to think about next May’s council elections – traditionally a time when big ideas are promised and less time is spent on the detail. Conservatives and Lib Dems running the Town Hall have been warned against making announcements simply to bolster election leaflets.
Polly Shields, one of the Where Is My School? campaign organisers, said yesterday the new commitment was a “step forward” and “welcome” but added that hopes had been raised before.
She said: “What we have to be careful is that they don’t increase the numbers at South Camden Community School [in Somers Town], which nobody wanted, and then find that there are some places over. They could then say we didn’t need Wren Street. You also have to be careful: the council say they are going to do something but it is then so long off that it gets forgotten.”
Many of the parent campaigners have lent hours of their time even though they are aware that their own children are likely to be too old by the time any new school opens to benefit. It could be 2016 before a school is up and running in Wren Street, even if the council and government remain committed to the idea.
Ms Shields added: “Once we started the campaign, we realised it went a lot further than just a few applications. It was an injustice that had gone on in the community for years.”
Camden snubbed the south of the borough when it was handed government cash for a new school in 2006. Instead of finding a site south of Euston Road, it chose to build a school – the new UCL Academy due to open its doors in 2011 – in Swiss Cottage.
Labour councillor Theo Blackwell said: “It is a victory for those who believe in the ‘never say die’ attitude. In 2007 the council leadership had all but written campaigners off, despite the overwhelming demand for a new school from families living in the five most southerly wards in the borough. Thanks to the persistence of local parents and our MP Frank Dobson, the glint of hope was kept alive. The council has the site, the money and the support, it’s time to move forward.” |
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