Stop Tory Selling Playing Fields
Monday 16th January 2012
GMB CALL ON WANDSWORTH EDUCATION
COMMITTEE MEETING ON WEDNESDAY (18TH JANUARY) TO SCRAP
SALE OF 4 ACRES OF PLAYING FIELDS AT PUTNEY SCHOOL TO FUND
REFURBISHMENT
Selling 4 acres of school playing
fields to pay for the refurbishment of one of the council's own
secondary schools while finding up to £30m to pay for a new
Bolingbroke free school in the borough is an absolute scandal says
GMB
GMB, the union for school support staff, is
calling on the Education Committee of the London Borough of
Wandsworth, meeting on Wednesday 18th January 2012, to
scrap the sale of 4 acres of playing fields at Elliot school in
Putney to pay for the refurbishment of the school which the council
owns. See notes to editors below for details. Last year a
GMB report showed that the average annual household income of
parents near the Elliot School was 63% of the London average
household income.
Carillion Construction UK Ltd has just
commenced work on a £13.2 million 73 week contract to convert the
old Bolingbroke Hospital site, in Battersea, into a new free
school. The first phase is due to open in September 2012.
Wandsworth Council last year acquired the site from the NHS for £13
million using its own funds which it has now leased to ARK for 125
years. Last year GMB demonstrated that the average annual income of
parents living near this new school was up to 186% of the London
average household income
Parents in Tooting are currently being
consulted on plans by Katherine Birbalsingh, a director of a
company registered in Ashford in Kent, to open a 120 place per year
Michaela Free School in Tooting in September 2013. She plans to use
a building currently used by the Trident Centre on Bickersteth Road
SW17, which is owned by the London Development Agency. Katherine
Birbalsingh, the proposed headmistress, came to prominence when she
criticized the quality of state education at the 2010 Tory Party
Conference.
GMB, the union for school support staff, is
calling on the Education Committee of Wandsworth Council to look
again and scrap plans to sell these 4 acres of playing fields at
Elliot School in Putney and to fund the refurbishment in another
way when the Committee meets later this week. The plan to sell the
school playing fields and to turn Elliot school into an academy has
yet to be agreed by the Michael Gove Secretary of State for
Education.
Paul Maloney, GMB Senior Officer for school
support staff said “The Tory Council is transferring
resources to the “well off” from the “less well off” in the
borough. Selling 4 acres of school playing fields to pay for the
refurbishment of one of the council's own secondary schools while
finding up to £30m to pay for a new Bolingbroke free school in the
borough is an absolute scandal.
These 4 acres are in an area of the
borough where the average household income is less than 2/3rds of
the London average. The council was well aware last year that
Elliot needed investment when a £40.3 million refurbishment was
cancelled by the newly elected government. Yet a few months after
that the council announced that they were spending £13 million from
reserves to buy the site in Battersea for a new school in an area
where the household income are nearly double the London
average.
ARK is involved with both projects.
ARK is a menace as far as education provision in Wandsworth is
concerned. They had their fingers in the plans for an elite
Bolingbroke free school until GMB opposition led to changes in the
planned catchment area. Now they are up to their necks in these
plans to sell these school playing fields. They claim to be on the
side of the poor and disadvantaged kids. How does getting rid of
playing space do that?
Wandsworth council is nothing short of
a thundering disgrace in proposing the sale of these playing
fields. GMB is calling on the public in Wandsworth to oppose this
asset stripping of publicly owned land used as playing field. As
well as sale of outdoor playing fields the plan will also lead to
the knocking down of one of the largest indoor sports halls in
London and the loss of this amenity to the community.
Whatever education outcomes are agreed
for Elliot, and whether or not it becomes an academy, none should
involve the sale of playing fields. That should be common ground
for all involved. We must unite to save these school playing
fields. The Education Committee must scrap these plans on
Wednesday.”
End
Contact: Paul Maloney, GMB
Senior Officer on 07801 343839 or Paul Grafton 07714 239
092. GMB Press Office 07921 289880 or 07974 251823
Notes to editors
The plan to sell the school playing fields and
to turn Elliot school into an academy has yet to be agreed by the
Michael Gove Secretary of State for Education. Wandsworth Council
is asking for the go ahead to sell these playing fields to fund the
refurbishment of the existing building and make it into an academy
school. The school charity ARK is party to these plans. ARK will be
part of a rebranding of the school and will take over the new
building and the school from September 2012.
These playing fields are owned by the Elliot
Trust which was established 19 months ago. The Trust partners are
two other Wandsworth schools, Chestnut Grove, Ernest Bevan and the
Institute of Education at Roehampton. At that time the Labour
Government put in £700,000 to form the trust. A £40.3m investment
was planned to refurbish Elliot school and was due to start in
summer 2011 under the Building Schools for the Future programme.
This investment was cancelled in summer 2010 under Tory spending
cuts. It is now proposed that the land is returned from Elliot
Trust to the council so that the playing fields can be sold to fund
this new investment.
As well as the plan being discussed by the
Education Committee on Wednesday, the ‘proposal’ has to go to the
Secretary of State in January because Elliot is no longer a failing
school and therefore cannot become a sponsored academy without the
go ahead from his department.