School site needs vision

Published: 13 May, 2011

• READERS may be interested in the latest news regarding plans to site Ashmount Primary School in Upper Holloway on open ground at Crouch Hill.

Crouch Hill Community Park Association (CHCPA), an umbrella group set up to represent residents and other interests, attended a meeting in March hosted by Islington Council. It was also attended by Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, designers, stakeholders and contractors.

Although little has been done so far to engage with local people, key principles of a community plan for the scheme received a positive response at the meeting.

They include:

• The need for a community plan of vision, which could be completed six months in advance of the site’s operation as a school/nursery. The plan may need to express Islington’s Local Area Agreement, which guides planning obligations, and include themes under the borough’s “liveability” agenda, to support voluntary and community activity in the borough. 

• The need to ensure community involvement in management of the site. This may lead to the creation of a community development/land trust as a possible model.

• Consolidation of this could mean widening activity to include training and work and a community café serving the Parkland Walk. It could also mean restoring space for meetings and classes in the old bowlers building and garden, in compensation for the closure of Crouch Hill Community Centre. 

CHCPA aims to ensure community access to, and involvement in, the management and maintenance of Crouch Hill Community Park through an effective community plan.

The group meets next at 7.30pm on Wednesday at New Orleans Hall in Hornsey Rise.

ADAM COOK
Landscape planner, N19