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Published: 08 July, 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY

EDUCATION secretary Michael Gove has made himself Public Enemy Number One at a host of Camden schools after pulling the plug on their long-anticipated rebuilding projects.

He will face fierce protests from schoolchildren, teachers and politicians after hacking back the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, an investment project which was due to improve nearly every ­secondary school in the borough.

Mr Gove will not even guarantee the future of the new UCL Academy planned for Swiss Cottage, where a headteacher has already been appointed in advance of it opening and designs have been submitted for planning ­permission. The school’s future is listed as “under discussion”.

He confirmed in the House of Commons on Monday that the investment programme embarked on by Labour would be severely curbed, a move predicted in a New Journal front page article two months ago.

Camden is one of the worst-hit areas in the country, with 13 projects spiked by Mr Gove, who said the cuts were due to Labour’s poor mismanagement of the programme and the bleak economic conditions.

In comparison to Camden, schools in Islington will continue to benefit from the policy because they were further along in the contract and planning process.

Rebuilds which had caused so much excitement at Camden School for Girls, William Ellis, Hampstead, Acland Burgh­ley and Maria Fidelis are among those to be chopped by the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition government. 

A campaign against the funding cut involving schools, parents and politicians – with the council at the forefront – was being talked about last night (Wednesday) although there is understood to be some caution among Town Hall officers who fear rocking the boat too much could jeopardise the two schools and new academy that still have hope of funding.

Camden’s plans were worth more than £200million and have been trailed for several years as a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to improve its schools.

Hampstead and Kilburn Labour MP Glenda Jackson said: “We should be investing in our children, not denying them and their dedicated teachers the best environment in which to develop their talents.”

The council already had a preferred contractor in place and yesterday ran a large advert in the Guardian newspaper – possibly costing as much as £8,000 but placed before Mr Gove’s announcement – for a general manager to oversee the projects.

Andrew Baisley, from Camden National Union of Teachers, said: “We will see schoolchildren protesting at the Department of Education, saying: ‘Where is my school, Mr Gove?’ This is effectively three years of hard work for some schools just being scrapped.”

He added: “There is an enormous need for Camden’s secondary and special schools to be modernised. Only Haverstock School is currently fit for purpose. It is particularly outrageous that Maria Fidelis has had its rebuild cancelled. The school is in a poor state on two sites separated by more than half a mile. The school has been waiting to be rebuilt for decades.” 

Outgoing Education Secretary Ed Balls predicted the cuts when he visited King’s Cross in April, claiming the money would be diverted to Mr Gove’s free schools programme.

Councillor Heather Johnson, Labour’s education chief at the Town Hall, said: “At a stroke, well-advanced plans to repair buildings and create modern classrooms with new computers and IT facilities have been withdrawn. 



“It’s very sad for parents and teachers who worked so hard to get plans in place. All of our young people will suffer as a result of the loss of BSF investment.”

University College London said yesterday it did not know how the review of its academy plans for Swiss Cottage would work and had not yet been given a timetable of the discussions that would decide whether the government would maintain funding for the scheme.

Lib Dem councillor John Bryant said BSF under Labour had largely been “over-bureaucratic and overly expensive”.

But he added that the case could still be argued for expanding South Camden School, rebuilding Swiss Cottage School and opening the UCL Academy. “It is right that schemes designed to increase pupil places still have the prospect of going ahead,” he said.

Conservative leader Councillor Andrew Mennear, who oversaw development of the BSF schemes in Camden as the council’s education chief until Labour’s return to power, said: “It is very disappointing that the schemes are not going ahead. Unfortunately, we were one local authority against the tide. While we made best efforts to get it done on time and to budget, BSF was mismanaged elsewhere.”

He added that he had already spoken to “special advisers” in government to see whether Camden could strike a better deal, but warned that protesters “need to wake up and smell the coffee and understand just what a dire state the last Labour government left the national finances in”.

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Unlucky 13 – Where axe fell

SCRAPPED: 
Rebuilds/improvement work at:

• Acland Burghley
• Agincourt House Pupil Referral Unit
• Camden School for Girls
• Chalcot
• Great Ormond Street Hospital School
• Hampstead
• Jack Taylor
• La Sainte Union
• Maria Fidelis
• One One Five PRU
• Parliament Hill
• Royal Free Hospital Children’s School
• William Ellis

UNDER REVIEW:

• New UCL Academy
• Expansion of South Camden Community School
• Swiss Cottage