Camden News: new school | 'Uriah Heap' | hypocrisy | 2014 delay | Dickens

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

Camden News - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 9 April 2009

New school is hit by ‘2014’ delay

Town Hall accused of ‘Uriah Heep’ hypocrisy as it admits problems over site

THE Town Hall has been accused of acting like Uriah Heep – the famously hypocritical character dreamed up by Charles Dickens – over plans to open a new secondary school in Holborn.
Education chiefs were praised last month for finally agreeing to look at the possibility of opening a school on the site of council-owned lock-ups in Wren Street.
But goodwill in the neighbourhood has turned sour after council officials said it was unlikely to open before 2014 as they are still involved in complex negotiations over the leases on the lock-ups
Camden Council’s cabinet of senior councillors was urged to focus its interest in the project at a meeting last Wednesday, with calls to take stronger action over the future of the site.
In response, education chief Councillor Andrew Mennear admitted the council was often slow to “seize the moment”.
Families are desperate to get the proposed school open as soon as possible as parents have historically had difficulties finding secondary places for their children. Camden is building a school in Swiss Cottage, but no concrete plans have been drawn up for the south of the borough.
Labour councillor Jonathan Simpson said: “The fact so many children in our wards are sent off to so many different schools is extremely divisive. It leads in some instances to fractured communities.
“It is really important for the council to take more of a leadership role. It needs to work with the community.”
Fellow Labour councillor Julian Fulbrook came up with the “Uriah Heep” analogy, adding that the council sounded like a “record stuck in the groove”.
Polly Shields, one of the organisers of the Where Is My School? parents campaign, told the meeting: “We don’t believe that we should wait until 2014 at the earliest.
“It is in no one’s interests to be delayed for so long, to be in limbo for five years.”
Education chief Councillor Andrew Mennear said he hoped “Uriah Heep would be banished,” admitting: “As a local authority, we are sometimes susceptible to not seizing the moment, taking a glass half-empty rather than half-full approach.”
He insisted he is desperate to prove to parents that the council remains committed to the idea.
Cllr Mennear added: “I think that it will be very difficult to find a political group that would move away from the notion of Wren Street for a school – unless a better school somehow miraculously appeared in the period ahead of us. There are some difficulties and legal issues, but that doesn’t take away from our intentions.”

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: