Labour’s challenge on demand for primary places

Published: 1 July, 2010

• ONE item on which the new Labour council has been uber-quiet since taking over has been the need for two new primary school forms of entry in the north of Camden.

Let me remind that this is not dependent on the current level of applications for Camden’s primaries, but on the independent GLA predictions of future pupil numbers in the borough.

Money is obviously in very short supply.

Gordon Brown’s Primary Capital Programme was never fully funded, thus already forcing councils to prioritise certain schemes before others. 

Camden’s previous Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration prioritised the provision of new school places.

It is highly likely that the new Labour administration will instead prefer to finance long-needed improve­ments to some existing primaries.

This is their decision and politics is full of tough calls.

However, local authorities still have a duty to ensure there are sufficient school places for our young people.

The Labour council has, therefore, a responsibility to local families to explain how they will provide the primary school places this borough will require into the future.

If it says no to the expansion of St Paul’s Church of England Primary, what next? 

Are they gambling on the new government’s “free” schools policy releasing them from the burden of providing school places?

We should be told. 

A creative solution might be to use the free schools policy to look once again at smaller sites for schools and invite in private providers to work in tandem with the local authority.

Does Labour have  the vision to do this? There’s a lot riding on this for very many families in Camden...

CLLR ANDREW MENNEAR
Conservative, Frognal & Fitzjohns ward