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Academy with a view
• TWO weeks and two glowing pieces on St Mary Magdalene Academy clearly left Tribune correspondents with no time to speak to residents.
Some of these have recently suffered considerable disturbance from construction work, with vehicles arriving before the agreed start time of 8am and failing to use designated routes, together with weekend and bank holiday working. No advance notice was given of the latter.
While stating publicly that the development is on schedule, in replies to those who have dared complain, the Diocese of London takes a different stand, for example: “If we had been able to move onto site as originally expected rather than been blocked by opponents of the scheme, we might have been able to avoid such intensive working in the past few weeks.”
Blaming residents for exercising their democratic right to oppose a development they considered too large for the chosen site sits uneasily with the academy’s specialty of “world citizenship”. We are all citizens, and it is the residents who have to live with the impact of the scheme.
Nor did opposition to the development stop clearance of the site beginning before permission for the closure of St Mary Magdalene primary was granted. The school adjudicator expressed his surprise and warned the sponsor, the diocese, that such work had been started at its own risk.
With completion not due until 2008, and the school roll set to rise every year until it reaches 1,360 pupils in 2012, the full impact of the development will emerge only gradually. A recent on-site meeting confirmed one outcome Residents Against Mary Magdalene Academy have long warned of – the height of the building allows views into and out of Bride Street bedrooms and homes.
MEG HOWARTH
Residents Against Mary Magdalene Academy
Ellington Street, N7
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