The Fight For The Schools We Need

Camden Labour has long been aware of the serious shortage of secondary school places in the borough.  This was particularly relevant to families living south of the Euston Road, where parents found that their children were in the catchment area for virtually no Camden schools. This led to real difficulties placing children into secondary schools, often meaning long journeys for those lucky enough to get a Camden place or having to attend a school outside the borough and hence outside parents’ democratic control.

With the arrival of the Labour Government’s £40 billion Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, over £200 million of which is earmarked for Camden, came the opportunity to resolve the problem and give children in the south of the borough the school the vitally needed.

The problem was that this did not fit in with the political imperative of the Tory/Lib Dem administration that has chosen instead to build a brand new Academy in their electoral heartland completely out of the reach of families in Holborn and Bloomsbury.  This is despite clear evidence during consultation that this was the least favoured option with parents across the borough.  The rationale for the complete disregard of the needs in the south was made glaringly apparent with the surfacing of a leaked memo from the then Lib Dem Executive Member for Children setting out the electoral advantage of having a new school in development on the Swiss Cottage site in time for the 2010 local elections!

Camden Labour joined in the fight with parents campaigning for a school for their children. Decisions of the Executive were called in by Labour councillors, scrutiny members attempted to get decisions reversed and there was a prolonged press campaign, both in opposition to the siting of the school in Swiss Cottage and in support of Frank Barnes school for deaf children and later Edith Neville school, both high quality junior schools that are threatened by the building of the Academy at Swiss Cottage. 

Supported by the Secretary of State

Frank Dobson MP took up the case for parents in his constituency and received a promise from Ed Balls MP, Secretary of State at the Department of Children, Schools and Families, that money additional to the existing BSF finance would be found for a second school south of the Euston Road.  He also said that he would be prepared to consider proposals for two smaller schools in the borough, one in the north and one in the south, given the scarcity and cost of sites in central London.  Yet the Tories and Lib Dems have continued with their plans for a six forms of entry Academy in the north of the borough and insisting that their hugely unpopular plan to enlarge South Camden Community School by two forms of entry will give Camden the total number of new school places it needs and provide an alternative for children in the south of the borough.

Cllr Andrew Mennear, the Tory Exec member for schools has stated that his ideal solution would be two smaller schools, one in the north-west and one in the south, but has insisted that there is no suitable site in the south and that in any event the whole BSF programme would be at risk if there were any delay in the timetable for building the new Academy.  Camden Labour have repeatedly pointed out that the timetable is not being driven by the Government and that the Secretary of State has made it clear that a delay in building the Academy in order to seek a solution to the problem faced in south Camden would not jeopardise the programme in any way.

Wren Street

Despite the Lib Dems and Tories insisting that their Administration is doing everything it can to find a solution, it is the campaigning parents and their Labour ward councillors who have identified a site at Wren Street, that now appears to be not only big enough for a six forms of entry school, but is actually already in Camden’s ownership!

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Labour ward councillors are pressing for a full examination of the Wren Street site and we will press for a delay to the Swiss Cottage Academy programme until this has taken place.  Camden Labour will continue to lobby for a change in the current proposals for the Swiss Cottage site and South Camden Community School, for an acceptable solution to the co-location of Frank Barnes School and the rebuilding of Edith Neville School without the loss of any of its site.  We will also do everything in our power to support the parents’ campaign for a much needed Camden school south of the Euston Road.

Please sign our petition, and demand a thorough examination of the Wren Street site.

Councillor Heather Johnson
Chair Children School’s and Families Scrutiny Committee

Goto the Where Is My School webiste for more info on the parent’s campaign

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