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Finding school cash
• “IF there was an alternative way of finding funding for schools we would have done it,” says Alison Critchley, deputy head of Islington’s children’s services, trying to justify the selling-off of the Hugh Myddelton primary school playground (School playground sold off for block of flats, November 2).
She has some explaining to do. Her assertion is directly contradicted by the admission of planning officers that “independent advice suggested funding to pay for improvements to [primary] schools could have been obtained elsewhere”.
The council recently made £70 million from the sell-off of small shops, also in the south of the borough. Perhaps to lessen the controversy surrounding that sale, last month’s edition of Islington Focus (renamed Islington Now) stated that £12 million of the £70 million is to be used to “help revamp and rebuild every secondary school in the borough” (the article failed to mention that central government has provided Islington with more than £100 million of Building Schools for the Future funds for that purpose – on condition that it agreed to two city academies).
The council claims that a further £10 million will be spent on new housing (for which government funding is being made available) and £5 million on road repairs (funded by Transport for London).
That’s a total of £23 million, leaving £43 million as yet publicly unaccounted for. Why isn’t some of this being used for the Hugh Myddelton refurbishment, thereby saving the playground for the children?
Whether or not this is the alternative source of funds that planners were advised could have been used at Hugh Myddelton, questions need to be asked as to why planning officers “reluctantly” rejected this advice, deciding instead that selling off the playground was the “most viable option” for the future of the school.
A block of 32 flats and a ground floor of shops is to be built on the site.
Meg Howarth
Ellington Street, N7
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