| |
Overspill school site is unsuitable
• I AM a resident of Courthope Road who is very concerned at Camden Council’s plan to turn Hampstead Hill School at All Hallow’s Church, Gospel Oak, into Camden Courthope Education Centre.
Because they have a number of primary-age children surplus to the places available at existing primary schools, the council’s education department intends to use it as an overspill to accommodate the surplus children and has done a deal with the private Hampstead Hill School, which has used the premises since the 1990s.
As in the 1990s when Hampstead Hill School took over the premises, there has been no consultation with the people who live in this quiet, narrow, residential street.
The premises were totally unsuitable for a school, virtually sub-terranean classrooms with no playground.
It offers no scope for the imaginative play the children need; no room for equipment.
It is nothing short of dangerous owing to its cramped and confined nature.
From the outset the existence of the school brought noise, misery and traffic chaos to Courthope Road and the adjoining area.
How come Camden is taking over the premises?
Indeed how was planning permission for such an unsuitable premises ever obtained in the first place?
Extra classrooms could be sited in Weedington Road Play Centre, recently refurbished at a reputed cost of £495,000 with a state-of-the-art playground and sports facilities for young children.
Neighbouring schools could take over the management of extra classes at Weedington Road, where there is plenty of room to set up Portakabins.
This would be a far cheaper option than leasing from Hampstead Hill School for thousands of pounds.
The proposed overspill school has already been labelled “Camden Courthope Education Centre” a title which has a worrying ring of permanence about it.
Does this mean that Camden will acquire the premises and establish a permanent school there without reference to the residents?
I am sure that most people who live here would have liked to have been consulted, just as they would have wished to have been in the 1990s.
RUTH MAXWELL
Courthope Road, NW3
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
