Angry Clapham parents demand answers
|
 Lambeth Labour Group leader Cllr Steve Reed at Clifton Sheltered Housing Scheme |
Residents of Clapham Park have been appalled to learn of secret plans by Lambeth Council to disrupt a community, evict elderly people from their homes and to demolish a popular and successful primary school.
The community affected is the pleasant, leafy area around Clarence Avenue. Elderly residents of the Clifton sheltered housing scheme, many of them World War II veterans, were frightened and became very anxious when leaflets were shoved through their doors informing them that their homes are to be bulldozed to make way for a new Glenbrook Primary School. The existing primary school across the road in Clarence Crescent is to be replaced by a new City Academy.
No local consultation about this scheme had been carried out by the Liberal Democrats and Tories who have run Lambeth Council since 2002.
Everyone knows Lambeth is desperately short of secondary school places. Because many similar inner-city areas are short of schools, the government introduced its City Academies scheme to finance the building of new schools specially designed to meet the needs of children in areas of deprivation. There are now 17 City Academies nationwide, including one in Elms Road, by Clapham Common, which opened last September after receiving seven times as many applications as it had places.
 Glenbrook Primary School |
Recently, a number of Lambeth councillors were sent a letter from two angry parents of the Clarence Avenue neighbourhood, demanding answers about the Administration's scheme to demolish the sheltered housing scheme and Glenbrook Primary School and to cram a new City Academy onto this small site.
Ruth Ling was one of the councillors who received this letter in error (as she is only an opposition councillor, not a member of the ruling Lib Dem/Tory coalition Administration, for whom it was clearly intended). Ruth is the Labour councillor for Clapham Common ward (which includes the western side of Clarence Avenue, in which the elderly people's home stands) and is Chair of the Clapham & Stockwell Area Committee.
Here she stands up and is proud to be counted as opposing the mad, bad and dangerous plans to destroy this community. And she gives straight answers to the local parents' questions.
Parents:
As neighbours of the excellent Glenbrook Primary School, we wish to voice
the strongest possible objection to the way Lambeth Council seems hell-bent
on riding roughshod over everyone concerned in pursuit of its plans for
a City Academy in Clarence Avenue. The way in which the objections of
parents, teachers and local residents – including the vulnerable
occupants of sheltered homes – are being ignored is
disgusting.
Ruth:
I agree entirely. And as Glenbrook Primary School was in my ward for the
first eight years I was a councillor, until Boundary Commission changes
moved it into Thornton ward in 2002, I know it well and share your view
on its excellence.
I am only a Labour (Opposition) member of the Council, which is run by a Lib Dem/Tory coalition. These misguided, absurd and callous plans are entirely the idea of that Lib Dem / Tory Administration. The Labour Group of Lambeth councillors has consistently and robustly spoken out against these plans.
In fact, it was I who first brought this matter to the attention of the South London Press, which then ran a large news report about the scheme.
As an Opposition councillor, I learned about the Administration's proposals only in the same way as the general public. (The Lib Dems and Tories do not consult us about their plans until they start to go wrong, or begin to prove unpopular, and then they draw us into false "consultation" in an attempt to share the blame, as is the case presently with the entire Clapham/Brixton/Streatham "Revitalise" programme, which includes closing the Clapham Library, swimming pool and leisure centre.)
Parents:
Why did Lambeth Council NOT inform the old people they plan to move, and
neighbouring residents, of the so-called pre-consultation meetings at
Glenbrook School?
Ruth:
Because, I believe, the Administration had no idea that the Clifton sheltered
housing scheme was inhabited! Yes, incredible – but very likely
to be true. The building closest to Clarence Avenue (formerly a temporary
asylum seekers' hostel) is empty and the windows are boarded up with metal
hoarding. I believe that if the Administration gave it any thought at
all, they assumed the same was true of the entire complex and were unaware
that the back section of Clifton, lying back from Clarence Avenue, is
inhabited by elderly people, including many WWII war veterans.
Parents:
Is it because you wanted to push the plans through BEFORE the inevitable
objections flood in?
Ruth:
As I said before, these plans have nothing to do with my fellow Labour
councillors and I, and I have no idea what the Lib Dem / Tory intentions
were.
Parents:
Were the meetings DELIBERATELY organised for the day before an all-party
report was published that slammed City Academies as failures?
Ruth:
Again, I can't comment as I am not involved in Lib Dem/Tory policy-making
and knew nothing about their meetings and plans.
Parents:
Why is a Lib Dem/Tory-controlled council so keen on the FLAWED scheme
of a Labour government?
Ruth:
Sorry, I have no idea how Lib Dems and Tories think or where they get
their cranky ideas from. (However, today's national news seemed to suggest
that the jury is still out on whether Academies are a success or not.)
Parents:
Will you listen to the UNANIMOUS votes against from parents, Glenbrook
Primary School teachers and neighbours at every meeting that has been
held?
Ruth:
Yes, absolutely, as I have done since the start of this appalling and
heartless scheme.
Parents:
Why are you riding ROUGHSHOD over the parents who spoke so eloquently
about their concerns for this community school?
Ruth:
As before: Labour councillors are not involved in this scheme and are
opposing it.
Parents:
Do you really want the UNRULY behaviour from teenagers up to 19 spilling
down to the three-year-olds they outnumber in the same set-up?
Ruth:
No, certainly not. Little kids need to be able to settle into school and
learning in an entirely different environment to that of teenage students,
who could be very intimidating to them.
Parents:
Will not taking away playground open space to accommodate 1,600-plus pupils
in a small area result in a giant concrete educational GHETTO?
Ruth:
Yes, I believe it will. Many children complain that they do not have enough
playground space already. Let's not further deprive them of the opportunity
to run around in the fresh air to get some exercise.
Parents:
Have you considered the CHAOS that will arise from so many pupils, parents
and staff converging on this area every day?
Ruth:
I've considered it but cannot imagine it – ghastly in such a quiet,
green residential area!
Parents:
Apart from the fact you will have to invest money, why doesn't it make
SENSE to have a Nelson Mandela School in Brixton where there is the greatest
need?
Ruth:
It makes complete sense to have a school in Brixton where there is the
greatest need. Even without the enormous disruption both to Glenbrook
Primary students and to the elderly residents of Clifton, the Clarence
Avenue / Glenbrook site is not the right one for central Lambeth. The
proposed site is too close to the existing Lambeth Academy in Elms Road
beside Clapham Common. If it has the same admission policy as the Lambeth
Academy (whereby students are selected on the basis of living within one
mile by the shortest route), there would be an overlap, giving some children
the choice of two schools, but leaving many others outside the one-mile
zone and with no other school available. In order to properly serve kids
in the centre of the borough, there needs to be a new secondary school
in Brixton.
Parents:
Why aren't you LISTENING to the people of Brixton who want secondary education
provision there?
Ruth:
Labour councillors are listening very carefully to the people of Brixton
and are liaising with SSCIL [the Secondary School Campaign In Lambeth]
over the possibility of using the Thames Water site at Brixton Hill for
the proposed Nelson Mandela School.
Parents:
Isn't saving the initial investment a FALSE economy when it is set against
the problems, including environmental ones caused by extra traffic, of
shipping hundreds of pupils from Brixton to Clarence Avenue?
Ruth:
Economics is not my forté, but from what I can see, yes, it would
be a false economy. Why demolish two perfectly good buildings that are
working well in the functions for which they were intended? And, yes,
the disruption to many people, and to a pleasant neighbourhood, would
be colossal and would create far more problems than it would solve.
Parents:
What is the SENSE in Clapham having two Academies when the need is in
Brixton?
Ruth:
None whatsoever. Please see my answer to your earlier question about Nelson
Mandela School.
Parents:
Finally, why should anyone VOTE for you in next year's local elections
if you do not take on board the legitimate concerns of the electorate?
Ruth:
I sincerely hope that residents will continue to vote for me because they
recognise that I am listening to their concerns. In each of the past three
borough elections (1994, 1998 and 2002), I have been voted top of the
ballot in my ward, and I believe that is because I respond quickly to
residents' concerns, offer considered and useful advice and help, based
on my 11 years' experience on the Council, give a lot of time and concern,
submit a very high number of Members' Enquiries (official complaints)
to the Council on behalf of residents and solve a great many people's
problems. I hope you will keep me informed of local views and activities
about this issue. And I wish you success in your campaign to change the
Lib Dems' minds and find a more satisfactory location elsewhere for a
new City Academy.
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