West End Extra - letters: Location of school

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 6 July 2007

Location of school will mean another isolated generation

• IT now seems obvious that Camden Council’s consultation on where to locate a new secondary school was nothing more than a sham and that the question of building the school in Swiss Cottage was never in doubt. The excuse that there is no property available south of Euston Road that would suit the need is total rubbish.
What this means is that the council has deserted yet another generation of young people who happen to live in the south of the borough, effectively isolating another generation of kids. They will spend vast amounts of time travelling to and from school, or simply to meet up with a mate and be in fear of being mugged or attacked in areas that they are not acquainted with; and their parents will live with those same fears.
Yet again we see Camden taking the easy option rather than satisfying “the need”. It is about to miss the only opportunity in the past 60 years to do the proper thing for the next generation of south Camden children and those that follow.
We in the south of the borough have alway been suspicious that Camden does not “need us” politically. If we had any doubts about that we can be sure now that our suspicions are correct.
The whole area of the West End north of the river is in need of a new secondary school, to facilitate Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia, Marylebone, Covent Garden, Holborn and even Mayfair and St James’s.
Why cannot Camden and Westminster get together to solve the problem? The sites are available but the will has to be there to acquire one of them.
If this opportunity is lost (£200 million) then I fail to see how the problem will ever be resolved. Something must be done. London’s West End will become a wasteland in time if proper school provision is not met.
JIM MURRAY
Chair, Bloomsbury Association
Gower Street, WC1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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