Warnings over Kingston 'education crisis' (From This Is Local London)

Warnings over Kingston 'education crisis'

9:23am Sunday 23rd November 2008 in Where I Live By Mike Didymus

Kingston faces an “education crisis” if the council refuses to build a new school in the north of the borough, local parliamentary hopeful Zac Goldsmith told a meeting of campaigning parents at the Hawker Centre on November 17.

More than 150 people turned up to voice their anger at the perceived lack of choice for parents in north Kingston, who face battling for places at the highly competitive and successful Tiffin schools or a trip outside of the borough to Grey Court in Richmond.

Kingston Council is due to release its Building Schools for the Future (BSF) report on December 1, which will indicate if and when it plans to build a new secondary school in the borough.

Campaigners said they would call-in the council’s decision if they found it “unsatisfactory”, with the emphasis on a new school being built sooner rather than later.

Mr Goldsmith said: “We’ve examined the numbers, and it is beyond any doubt now that north Kingston faces an education crisis.

“It’s no longer a choice between expanding Grey Court in Ham and building a new school in north Kingston. We need to do both, and fast.”

Campaigner Angela Norton-Billsby, who has been fighting for a new north Kingston school for 10 years, said she feared the council would hold back on a new school until 2014, when the “bulge” in numbers which left 212 primary pupils without a school earlier this year, would reach secondary schools in the borough.

She said: “The council figures work because they include the Tiffin schools, where only about 30 per cent of places go to Kingston children.

“We have got a really clear argument, and we’re prepared to call in the BSF strategy should it have something in that we think is not satisfactory.

“We need 100 signatures from Kingston residents, which will be no problem at all.

Councillor Patricia Bamford, Kingston executive member for education, refused to be drawn on the council’s decision before its official release.

She said: “I’m just going to say wait and see what’s in the report - I think people should just be patient.”

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