£40m rebuilds beat cuts for Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language College and Islington Arts and Media School

Published: 10 December, 2010
by TERRY MESSENGER

CONTRACTS have been signed for the rebuilding of two secondary schools in Islington – at a cost of £40million.

Work will now go ahead on replacing the school building at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language College in Risinghill Street, Islington.

And there will be a major rebuild and refurbishment project at Islington Arts and Media School, in Turle Road, Finsbury Park. 

Plans for the two schools narrowly escaped the Coalition government’s spending axe.

The national Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme was one of the first spending areas to be pruned back by the Coalition – with 700 schemes scrapped nationally.

But Islington’s BSF programme was too far advanced to cancel.

The proposals for Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Islington Arts and Media follow completed rebuilding work at four other secondary schools in the borough.

Children’s and young people’s chief, Labour councillor Richard Watts, said: “We have already seen the huge difference that new and improved BSF buildings have made in Islington.

“We want to help give all young people the best start in life and providing modern school buildings with first-class facilities, is helping to do this. I am pleased these schools have escaped the government’s cuts.”