[Part 1 of this review was posted yesterday.]

For the decision see https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/ViewCase.aspx?Caseid=3339060&CoID=0

A review of the decision to give planning permission for the Livingstone Academy, a 1200 pupil secondary school in Mortlake SW14 7ET

Contributed by Geoff Woodhouse who gave evidence to the Stag Brewery Inquiry on behalf of the Mortlake Brewery Community Group.

This school is under review by the Department for Education (DfE) to ensure that it continues to meet a need for places in the local area and offer value for taxpayers’ money. It was also the subject of a planning appeal inquiry, APP/L5810/W/24/3339062, the outcome of which was announced on 2 May 2025. The Inspector in that inquiry has granted planning permission for the school.

Pressure on existing secondary places

In this section the report again gives uncritical prominence to Council claims and fails to note that current difficulties are temporary.

1. §144 states:

Existing secondary schools in the east of the borough are ‘over-offering’ places, operating beyond their design capacities and reflecting a rate of demand that outstrips supply.

But the reason for over-offering in March is to ensure that places are filled in September.

2. §145 reads:

Existing bulge classes … accommodate additional pupils and enable operation above capacity but are not suitable as a permanent solution … the numbers of students applying for secondary schools in the borough have been rising for several years.

But MBCG evidence showed that the current demand for secondary places is not permanent. There are negligible in-year secondary admissions in the east of Richmond [1]. Thus, secondary populations (Years 7 to 11) will increase for only so long as incoming Year 7s exceed outgoing Year 11s. That will cease around 2029, the earliest date by which a new school could be ready to accept Year 7 pupils. So we face the absurdity of a new secondary school coming on stream at precisely the point at which secondary demand begins to fall.

• §145 continues:

[The borough’s School Place Planning Strategy [2]] states that in 2023, the number of unplaced children in the east of the borough together with the above-capacity offers of existing schools would have been sufficient to fill a 180-place year 7 intake at a new school.

But the above-capacity offers did not turn into actual admissions, nor were they expected to. The schools together are currently running at between 1 and 2 forms of entry above their built capacity – not 6 forms of entry, which would be 180 places – and this demand is temporary, as is evidenced by the falling rolls in the primary schools. The statement quoted is importantly misleading.

• §147 states:

Grey Court School and Richmond Park Academy have both opened sixth forms within the past decade. These are successful and they continue to grow [3]. [The borough’s School Place Planning Strategy[4]] recognises that they would be able to continue to build their numbers and resilience to potential competition from a new sixth form on the appeal site, for which demand would also take time to become established, and whose composition would most likely eventually be predominantly drawn from its own year 11.

Grey Court School has 8 forms of entry. Richmond Park Academy has only 6 forms of entry and its sixth form in January 2024 numbered 151. This is a good percentage of its intake at Year 7 but still well below DfE’s minimum criterion for viability of 200. The evidence is that an additional 300-place sixth form will be unsustainable.

Conclusion

§148 states:

Nonetheless, I acknowledge the parties’ concerns that overprovision in school places would have the potential to destabilise existing schools, including those outside the borough.

The National Audit Office has indeed criticised previous provision by DfE of unnecessary Free Schools on these grounds.

But the Inspector’s ‘acknowledgement’ has no effect: he has given the parties’ evidenced concerns in this regard no weight.

It appears from his concluding paragraphs that the mere existence of a Local Plan, an Emerging Local Plan and a School Place Planning Strategy, all of which foresee a need for the school, however weak the evidence of that need may be, has convinced the Inspector to find in favour of this Appeal.

[1] See Documents during Inquiry, INQ-22.2, pp7-9.

[2] CDE.30

[3] The Inspector refers to Documents during Inquiry, INQ-12, a Council statement presented on 7 Nov 2024.

[4] CDE.30

Geoff Woodhouse is a retired teacher and lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics. He has been associated with education in Richmond, as a teacher, lecturer, council officer or parent, for more than 45 years.