Save the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre closure petition presented - a further Council response awaited

 

From Brent Coucil's promotional video about the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre

I made the presentation below to Brent Full Council this evening. Cllr Grahl, lead member for schools was not present but promised to respond later to my points. Cllr Krupa Sheth, lead member for the Environment did not respond at all and it was left to Cllr Benea in charge of the capital project, a new build for a 16+SEND building, to answer the petition. 

However, the petition was not about the building, except that it should accommodate the Welsh Harp Environmental Centre's activities, and  she could not answer on the climate change, education or partnership questions.  Cllr Mary Mitchell made an intervention that was positive about the work of the Centre and its essential nature at a time of a climate and Ecological emergency. Cllr Lorber drew attention to my main point about the need for primary provision as well as 16+SEND in the new building and suggested the use of Neighbourhood CIL.

THE PRESENTATION 

This is what I said:

I am Martin Francis, ex-teacher, headteacher and LEA school governor. Petition supported by Brent Parks Forum and Brent Friends of the Earth. Despite operating during the school holiday the petition has 487 signatures.

 

People on my allotment have noticed a silence. This is the lack of excited chatter as crocodiles of primary children visiting the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre pass nearby.

 

We miss them, and surely the children will miss their visits.

 

The Centre has closed since Thames21 withdrew funding at the end of the Summer Term.

 

David Attenborough famously asked how it would be possible to motivate our children to fight to save nature, if they had never experienced it at first hand. It is not just a matter of scientific knowledge but of the experiential awe and wonder involved.

 

This generation of children will face the daunting task of tackling the climate and ecological emergency. The Centre had an important role in enabling our children to do just that and worked with up to 300 pupils a week. The vast majority of our primary schools do not have the grounds to match the experience offered by the woodlands and ponds of the Centre.

 

The Brent Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy 2021-2030 recognised the importance of the Centre and said:  

 

QUOTE  ‘The council has secured funding to improve the Educational Centre on the site, to bring residents, schools and communities closer to nature and to help improve biodiversity’

 

Brent Cabinet May 22^nd  2023 agreed post -16 SEND Provision in a new building on the site saying:

 

QUOTE:  The proposal would enable the Environmental Education programme to schools to continue to be delivered as part of the wider building use alongside the Post-16 horticultural use.

 

However, at the Joint Welsh Harp Consultative Committee, Leslie Williams for Brent Council said:

 

 QUOTE that the building would be ‘fully utilised during curriculum time by the post 16 provision’ and only available for other groups outside of that time. An excellent building has been designed but has it space for a primary classroom.

 

The Capital Projects team gave a resident a long list of organisations consulted about the new building but primary schools were missing.

 

The loss-making aspect of the Centre was cited as a reason for Thame21’s withdrawal. Part of that loss was down to the high heating and maintenance costs of the dilapidated cabin classrooms and will be addressed by a shared new building.

 

I alongside others took part in bringing together a consortium to use the building outside of school hours that could be a reliable income stream to help subsidise the Centre which was charging a fee of £5 per pupil per session to schools at the point of closure. The staff salary will be the main cost.

 

The petition calls on the council to undertake a full scoping exercise to find a new organisation to run the centre, perhaps local industry such as Careys to enhance their green credentials or a voluntary organisation such as the Canal and Rivers Trust.

 

So, we need three assurances from the lead member who responds to this petition:

 

1.     That the Environmental Education Centre will have space in the new building.

 

2.     That the council will make an all-out effort, fuelled by a passionate commitment to environmental education and the urgent need to address the climate and ecological emergency, to find a new partner to run the WHEEC.

 

 

3.     That the curriculum and activities offered by the Centre will continue to enrich the science curriculum on life processes and living things with first-hand experience.

 

 

I finished by remarking that the Mayor, Cllr Ryan Hack, had probably attended the Centre as a child 20 years ago!

 

A welcome innovation by the Mayor, following a request by Philip Grant, was to allow councillors to  comment on the petitions heard tonight. A little more democracy if councillors have the courage to say what they really think.