You might think that having posted a notice on the Council website that a letter had been written to the Department for Education asking for reconsideration of them being ‘minded’ to decide not to continue funding Livingstone Academy at the Stag Brewery, Councillors and Officers would be prepared for questions.

But nothing was said at the recent Council meeting. And when a question was asked at the Education Committee meeting on Thursday about why the letter had been written to the DfE given that it was reported that there was ‘a loss of 355 pupils across the Estate’, Officers and the Committee Chair, Cllr Cambridge, seemed ill-prepared.

Two Officers both said they had no answer, but they were happy to come back with it outside of the meeting. Cllr. Cambridge said that she noted the question and ‘we will get the relevant person to give a written answer’.

The exchange on the Council website is worth watching for the attempted prevarication! See: Agenda for Education and Children’s Services Committee on Thursday, 29 January 2026, 7.00 pm – London Borough of Richmond upon Thames See discussion at 40.35 to 40.55.

Cllr Cambridge was eventually driven to admit: ‘[It] is a joint letter that has gone out from Sarah Olney the MP, Gareth Roberts as the leader of the council and myself in response to the email letter which said that they [the DfE] are mindful [sic] not to allow the funding.

One remarkable feature is that Sarah Olney has become involved, when she has made no public statement about the Stag Brewery development in over two years. On what information did she base her decision to sign the letter to the DfE?

Recent education reports have confirmed that pupil numbers have continued to fall and there is no evidence that this trend is likely to reverse in the foreseeable future.  This further reinforces the view that a new secondary school is not required.  

The largest drop in secondary pupils on the Richmond side of the borough – 19 – is forecast at Richmond Park Academy (RPA), the school closest to the STAG site.  During the Inquiry, RPA confirmed it would be delighted to expand, by at least 1 additional class of 30 pupils.  It has not done so because there was not sufficient demand for places.  In 2026, RPA received congratulations from Bridget Phillipson, Education Minister, on the excellent outcomes for disadvantaged pupils at the end of the 24/25 academic year, placing it among one of the very best schools nationally.  So it is clear that the loss of pupils was not in any way related to performance. 

A report to the Education Committee on Thursday acknowledged that ‘as lower primary school numbers move through to secondary school, there will be less pressure on secondary school places and more vacancies in year 7’. So it is clear that the statement issued on 23 January 2026: “that the Department for Education’s decision [sic] to axe the Livingstone Academy West London risks worsening pressure on secondary school places in the east of the borough” is simply untrue. It is equally clear that the decision to write the letter was one taken solely by the Leader of the Council, the Chair of the Education Committee and our local MP. And it was done without discussion or advice from Officers and contrary to recent thinking emanating from Achieving for Children.

We have to ask again what games the Council Leadership are playing. Is it simply engaged in denial or self-justification? Or a determination to pass political blame onto central Government? Or the acquisition of central Government money? Or a nice-looking riverside school as a monument to this Council’s autocratic rule?