Calls for urgency over new school

Susanna Wilkey

CAMPAIGNERS for a secondary school in the south of the borough have called on Camden Council to take a much more positive approach to the scheme.

They have slammed the idea that the school will not be needed until 2017 and want the council to move more quickly.

Campaigners say they cannot wait eight years for a new school and made a deputation at a meet-ing last week, asking the council to start consultations with resi-dents and engage with the lease-holders over the Wren Street site.

Emma Jones, one of the organisers of the Holborn and St. Pancras Secondary School Campaign, said: "We are very glad that the council is taking Wren Street seriously but the tone of the report is really quite ne-gative in terms of what is possible and how long it will take.

"The council officers seem unwilling to see the potential that these developments offer. We want a more positive approach.

"It is high time something was done because speculation is rife."

Parents in the south of the borough have been campaigning for two years to get a school and wanted it to be included in the Building Schools for the Future scheme but were originally told there was not an appropriate site.

Camden Council ploughed on with its BSF plans for a new academy and an increased entry at South Camden Community School until the site at Wren Street was discovered last year - too late to be included in the programme.

The site is big enough for a small secondary school including a sixth form and the Department for Children Schools and Families has said it will fund the building of such a school, as long as the demand is proven.

A council officers' report says the leases on the site do not expi-re until 2014 so no feasibility study can be carried out until then.

For more information visit www.whereismyschool.org.uk