Muhammed Butt 'not prepared to ride roughshod over parents' concerns'

Some might dismiss it as a pre-election gambit but there was a vote, with Executive members taking different sides, at last night's Brent Executive.

The vote was on the officer's report on the proposed expansion of Princess Frederica Primary School. As reported below expansion was opposed by the great majority of parents and some local residents. There were concerns over the limited pavement space for pedestrians around the site, impact on the school's outdoor pay space and disruption during building.

Muhammed Butt said that  extra school places were needed 'but we are committed to listening to the voices of residents and are not prepared to ride roughshod over parents' concerns. In the face of so many opposing views, it is our duty to listen and re-think proposals to see if we can accomodate as many people's views as possible.'

Other campaigners in Brent such as those in Willesden Green and parents at Gladstone Park will wonder why he did not show the same respect for their concerns.  However, his statement still allows for a revised plan to come forward, probably after the local elections.

Cllr Michael Pavey, lead member for children and families,  said that they had learnt from the parents' campaign and would now take a step back to look at the expansion programme anew.

Councillor George Crane, lead member for regeneration and major projects,  however supported the officers' report and said local reservations should be dealt with through the planning process and wondered why Princess Frederica should be different from Newfield, Harlesden and Robert Southwell primary schools that were expanding without problems.

When the issue came to the vote Muhammed Butt (leader), Michael Pavey, James Denselow, Krupesh Hirani, Aslam Choudry and Jim Moher voted against the officers' recommendation.  to expand the school. Ruth Moher (deputy leader) and Margaret McLennan abstained and George Crane voted for the recommendations.

Parent power overthrows school expansion plans

I had a clash of meetings tonight so was unable to attend the Brent Executive. However Cllr James Denselow has tweeted that they rejected the officers' recommendation to expand Princess Frederica Primary School.  An unusual event.

Congratulations to the parents who fought a well informed campaign and managed to persuade Councillors Pavey and Denselow of their cause at a public meeting just before Christmas.

Officers, schools, the Diocesan Board and governors were thanked for their efforts and a review of current needs, to include community feedback was promised.  A new programme of expansion, including more creative solutions, will be developed during 2014.

The problems and limits of expansion on existing sites makes it even more important that local residents, parents and Brent Council support the School Places Crisis Campaign which seeks to reinstate local council's right to build new local authority schools where they are needed. LINK

Earlier coverage of the issue HERE

Expansion of Princess Frederica school proposed despite strong parent opposition

Princess Frederica  Cof E Primary School, Kensal Rise

The Brent Executive on January 13th will be asked to approve the expansion of Princess Frederica Primary School despite substantial opposition.

The school would grow from 420 pupil capacity to 630 by 2020 with some new build and partial demolition and rebuild of the present building.  The new build would include a roof top playground.

The Council argue that the expansion is needed to address the current shortage of school places due to the rising child population of Brent.

The Officers' Report LINK states that in the initial consultation 7 local residents were for expansion and 14 against, 3 parents were for and 22 against and 26 staff were for with 1 against.

Following the Statutory Notice during the four week Representation Stage  224 responses were received of which 16 were for the expansion and 208 against.

These are statement from some of the objectors:

“I am writing to ask you to turn down the request for the school expansion of Princess Frederica. The local area and infrastructure will not be able to sustain the added congestion. Already both the pupils and local community are put at risk through the cramming of small pavements and roads. I would suggest a much better use of Brent’s resources would be to turn around the local schools in the area –meeting specifically Furness Road School.

Piling all the resources into one local school which for now is popular, shows no sense of long term  planning for the broader community.”

“- the proposal is far too large for the footprint of the site and the access roads in the surrounding areas. The works will cause severe disruption to the education and welfare of the children there in 2014 and the dust created by building work will create a health hazard for my daughter who suffers from asthma there are better alternative schools sites for building expansion in the vicinity, we have real worries about how the building work - dust, noise, heavy machinery is inevitable - will affect the education of the current children, and also that the pressure on space from the additional classes each year will affect the future education in the widest sense, as well as the logistical issues of safety in delivering and collecting a greater number of children from school each day.”

“College Rd & Purves Rd are narrow & bottle neck at the slightest provocation. How will they & their residents cope with the heavy lorries & construction vehicles that will be needed on top of an already precarious equalibrium? If, as I understand,  the admission criteria are not to change to include more children on proximity rather than church attendance, there will be more cars & bicycles at drop off  & pick up times. Bicycles are being stolen from the railings outside the school on a regular basis & campaigns for parking them on the school premises have failed for years for reasons of short space!”

 “I believe that the school facilities are already over stretched and the addition of more pupils at the expense of outside s pace does not serve the educational interests of the pupils. In addition, two years of packed lunches and studying next to a building site will not help the children's education

 On space the Council respond:

Design work shows that it is possible to fit the additional buildings/internal space needed for the

increased number of children on the existing school  site and leave sufficient outside play area to  meet guidelines.

The additional proposed roof top play area and changes to the surfacing of ground level play areas, mean that based on the government’s method for measuring outdoor play areas there is sufficient to meet guidelines for a 3FE school on a confined inner city site.

It is accepted that during construction the available outside play space will be reduced but this will be managed to minimise the impact on existing children.

 On parking and infrastructure the Council state:

There is no parking on the school site and no facilities to drop off children by car other than on roads immediately surrounding the school. The school travel plan will actively encourage a majority of parents to walk or  cycle to school with their children.Cycle and scooter storage will be provided on site to avoid congestion created on the pavement by cycles being chained up outside school.  

It is proposed to widen the pavement in parts along  Purves Road to alleviate pedestrian congestion.  

A full transport assessment has been undertaken and will be submitted with the planning application. LBB Highways will review the application in detail and make further recommendations if required to minimise the  impact of proposed expansion on the existing road network.

On the community's preference for a 2 form entry school the council gives no quarter and presses what it sees as the benefits of larger shcools and in a new departure suggests they are becoming the norm:

Brent has 12 successful 3FE primary schools and 6 successful 4FE primary schools. 3FE and larger primary schools are now becoming the norm across London. Larger primary schools have considerable advantages in being able to afford higher levels of expertise, including subject expertise in e.g. MFL.

They also offer a wider range of extra curricular and after school activities. Brent also has many primary aged children currently without a school place. The council has a statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient school places for Brent residents who require a school place.

The Council say that it cannot changes the admissions criteria because the school is a Church of England Voluntary Aided School and therefore in charge of its own admissions. These currently give preference of church worshippers.

 Clearly this case raises issues that have been previously addressed on Wembley Matters over the optimum size of schools and the importance of play space. Most importantly of course it raises questions about consultation processes when, in this case, overwhelming views of parents as stakeholders are rejected.

The expansion plans will not be going to Planning Committee until June 2013 but the Council proposes that an additional 30 pupils will start in existing accommodation in September 2014 with the building works finished before the start of the 2015/16 academic year. The additional forms of entry will then gradually fill up the school year by year.

Give Brent Council the power and finance to build new schools for those without a school place

The Kilburn Times LINK this weekend headlined the news that more than 600 Brent primary school children are without a school place. I recently obtained figures from Brent Council under a Freedom of Information request that sheds a little more light on the situation.

There are in fact vacancies in some Brent primary schools but these may not be geographically convenient for parents of children out of school, especially when they involve children in a family attending several different primary schools.

This is the snapshot of  vacancies and children out of school on November 8th. Brent Managed and School Managed refers to the administration of admission applications. You can see that there is a slight surplus of school places in Years 3, 5 and 6.

The schools with several Reception vacancies at the time of the snapshot were Ark Franklin Primary Academy (the academy converted former Kensal Rise Primary), Brentfield Primary, Fryent Primary (recently expanded) and St Mary's RC Primary. The position changes rapidly so it is likely that these places will have been filled by now.

The fact that many children attend schools which are not their first choice or the most convenient means that many are on waiting lists for one or more other schools. With the current movement of families due to benefit reforms this produces 'churn' - high mobility as children change schools.

Despite a common National Curriculum across local authority schools this still produces disruption for children as they get used to a new school,  new teacher and new classmates, and is disruption for teachers as they cater for an ever changing class population.

Research indicates that such mobility has an initial impact on standards of achievement of the children who change schools.

The exceptional nature of the place shortage in Reception means that in total there are almost 2,500 on waiting lists in Brent. On the day of the snapshot five schools had more than 100 on the Reception waiting list: Anson 118, Ark 264, Islamia 104, Malorees Infants 102 and Wembley Primary 100.

I have asked for further information on how many of these are pupils on several waiting lists.

Things become much more settled at Year 1 with Barham the longest waiting list at 30, with a more equal distribution across schools, totalling 546. By Year 6 the total is 360.

The schools

I requested figures on the number of children out of school by planning area in order to get a picture of the geographical distribution. Brent Council said these figures were not available and instead provided distribution maps which are not exact. The blue figures on the map below indicate groups of children needing a Reception school place.

The demand for Reception places reinforces the need for planned construction of new primary schools by local councils rather than reliance on the vagaries of free school providers popping up in areas of need. The Council presently has a statutory duty to provide education for these children without having the powers to do so apart from expanding schools which are already often on crowded sites.

The Government needs to give local authorities back the power to plan and build new schools as well as the finance to do so. Instead they are wasting money of unwanted free school vanity projects.

Full documentation on my Freedom of Information Request can be found HERE

Cllr Pavey calls on local MPs to support School Places Crisis campaign

Cllr Michael Pavey has written to local MPs Barry Gardiner, Sarah Teather and Glenda Jackson asking them to support the 'School Places Crisis Campaign'. The campaign seeks the restoration of  power to local authorities to plan and build new schools to address the current shortage of primary school places.

The campaign has already been supported by Green MP Caroline Lucas and Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader.

Pavey wrote:

Dear Barry, Sarah and Glenda,

I am writing to ask that you support the NUT's 'School Places Crisis' campaign: www.theschoolplacescrisis.com 

As you know, we have a terrible shortage of school places in Brent. As a Council we are proactively expanding our schools and opening up additional spaces such as the Gwenneth Rickus Building. Yet even with all these additional forms of entry the shortage continues.

Personally I believe the diversion of precious public money into Free Schools is a terrible distraction from the urgent challenge of providing additional places. It is absolutely essential that, rather than sitting back and hoping that appropriate providers establish appropriate Free Schools in appropriate locations, Government policy allows for the strategic planning of new school places. I firmly believe that this function is best performed by local authorities. 

To meet the ongoing shortage of school places it is absolutely essential that the law be changed to allow Councils to open new schools. I would be very interested to get your thoughts and would strongly encourage you to support the NUT campaign in the interests of Brent families.

Best wishes,

Michael.

Cllr. Michael Pavey

Lead Member for Children & Families

Labour Councillor for Barnhill, Brent Council