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FINAL CALL TO 'SAVE SCHOOL'
Protesters bid to stop Pimlico demolition as consultation ends
CAMPAIGNERS have rallied in a last ditch bid to save Pimlico School from demolition.
Demonstrators rallied outside the headquarters of the proposed academy sponsor, venture capitalist John Nash, on Wednesday.
The iconic building is to be demolished over three years under plans expected to be rubber-stamped at City Hall within two weeks.
Parent campaigner Gloria Gately said: “The building is unobtrusive and has been very successful. It is in need of refurbishment but that is because it has suffered from years of neglect. It has been under-maintained by the council.”
She added: “We think it is environmentally unsound to demolish the building and it is very bad for the children who remain on the site while the works take place.”
Westminster NUT secretary Padraic Finn added: “You have to ask why are they demolishing the building, with all the ecological impact and waste of resources, when it has been proved that refurbishment is a better option?”
Leading architects have branded the demolition plan as “criminal” claiming it would be better value for money to refurbish it.
Roger Hawkins, commissioned by the council five years ago when it wanted to demolish the school in 1999 with a controversial PFI plan, said: “We demonstrated unequivocally that it would be good value for money to refurbish the building. It was a perfectly viable and attractive solution.”
The demolition plan is tied in with the academy proposal. The government dangled a £35 million carrot in front of the council if it agreed to transform the secondary comprehensive into a city academy.
The designs for the replacement L-shaped building was approved in December despite reports from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment that the designs were “not yet good enough”, “mediocre” and “not fit for purpose”.
Consultation on the demolition plan ends today (Friday). The move has triggered a wave of strikes by Pimlico teachers who criticise the council’s “penny-pinching” decision not to decant the building during the three-year works.
Teachers this week filed complaints to the council that noise from preliminary work was al-ready disrupting lessons.
Cllr Sarah Richardson, children’s services member, said: “Education has evolved since the 1960s and the design of Pimlico School means it simply cannot be adapted to meet current curriculum requirements. To advocate propping up this piece of apparently prized architecture rather than demolishing it and building a new fit-for-purpose school with first class facilities is to put the supposed architectural merit of the building before the quality of education and wellbeing of the school’s pupils.” |
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