No ‘free’ school: Wren Street lock-up site uncertainty
CONFUSION surrounds the future of the council-owned Wren Street lock-ups in Holborn which have been designated as a possible site for a new secondary school.
Finance chiefs say they can not hand over the site for a new school without getting any money in return, placing the ball in the government’s court. The Department for Education has been alerted several times to the long-running campaign to get a new secondary school open south of Euston Road, an area where families have historically found it difficult to find places.
But Conservative leader Councillor Andrew Mennear said: “The site was designated for the potential use for the school and Labour will be betraying residents if they step away from that now.”
Labour finance chief Councillor Theo Blackwell said: “There are no immediate plans to sell Wren Street but the government needs to make clear where it stands on a free school opening there.
“If it can contribute a significant amount of the funding for a new school there, we are open to talking, but we can’t just lose an asset worth £14million when the government has taken away money needed to repair existing schools.”
Published: 21st July, 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY