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Frank Dobson MP (centre) joins campaigners in celebration |
' I'LL PAY FOR NEW SCHOOL'
Education chief Ed Balls pledges cash for Camden secondary
EDUCATION Secretary Ed Balls has offered to pay for a new school in the south of Camden in a major breakthrough for parents calling for better secondary provision.
He waded into the simmering row over school places by pledging to stump up extra government funds to make sure stranded families in wards like Holborn and Bloomsbury have somewhere to send their children.
It is the first time a government minister has promised to come to the aid of parents who over decades have found it virtually impossible to find secondary school places.
Mr Balls has marked the issue as “urgent” and has already asked his aides to investigate why the area was overlooked in Camden Council’s decision to blow a £200 million grant on a new academy school in Swiss Cottage, instead of finding somewhere suitable south of the Euston Road.
He said: “We would be willing to fund a new school in the south as long as it could be demonstrated that the places were needed.”
His comments came in a letter to Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson, who said he is determined to see a new school open in what he views as Camden’s most deprived and more needy wards.
Mr Balls, who is due to visit the area over the next week, added: “The Department will now encourage Camden to take this work forward on an urgent and intensive basis. I have asked my officials for regular updates on the project.”
Parents who have given up their spare time for more than three years to campaign for a new school were celebrating cautiously yesterday at the first light at the end of tunnel.
Polly Shields, from the Where Is My School campaign, said: “It is a good sign that the government has listened to our case and is taking it seriously. There are question marks over Camden’s choice of sites and we have demonstrated time and again that the real need is in our area, south of the Euston Road.”
Ms Shields described the council’s search for an appropriate place for a school as “pathetic” and urged education chiefs to go back to the drawing board.
Controversially, the Town Hall’s choice of site in Adelaide Road is close to Quintin Kynaston and Haverstock schools, and will mean turfing out Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children from its current home.
Mr Dobson was clapped and cheered as he met parents on the morning school run yesterday, and campaigners still believe a deal for the Eastman Dental Hospital site in Grays Inn Road can be revived.
The MP said: “We will show there is a need for a new school. I’ve had several animated discussions with Ed Balls and what he is now saying is that he will help and can help and it won’t delay work to any other school. It is a clear message to Camden.”
Mr Dobson added: “Ideally it would be a community school, second choice would be a trust school and then third an academy. The most important thing is that we get the school open – the nature of the school is secondary.”
The latest developments have put the council in an awkward position and threaten to overshadow its plans for Swiss Cottage, supposedly one of the flagship projects of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative alliance. It now has little choice but to focus on finding somewhere in the south of the borough. The line from the coalition has previously been: ‘We’d love to help but no can do’.
But yesterday (Wednesday), Camden’s Conservative education chief Councillor Andrew Mennear said he welcomed the interest from Mr Balls.
“It all sounds like very good news but it is not as if we haven’t looked south of the Euston Road,” he said.
“We did an extensive search for a site and couldn’t find anywhere within the timescale we were given by the government. We have to welcome this new development and we are happy to work with the government. We’ve always said that we wanted to help.”
Professor Michael Worton from University College London, the sponsor of the planned academy in Swiss Cottage, has previously said he would welcome a new school in Bloomsbury but said: “Our understanding is that no site has been identified for any new school in the south of the borough. A search for a suitable site has been going on for some time, but without success. On the other hand, a site has been identified on Adelaide Road – and we know also that there is a need for provision in the north west of the Borough.
“We are therefore moving ahead with our proposal.” |
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