To ensure that this response is given full exposure the reply from Cllr Cambridge has been copied from Comments to a full posting. Slight editing has been done, solely to highlight separate issues, ie no content has been added or removed.

I am, as ever, happy to rebalance your narrative. See Edit Post “How to Help Thomson House: The End of a Bright Idea?” ‹ EastSheenMatters — WordPress

Thomson House, although part of a Trust and not under the Local Authority, is an incredibly precious and popular school.

I hear they want to look to move to the STAG Brewery site and the council has said, despite the school being leaseholders of 27 Sheen Lane, they are at total liberty to explore every option with the DfE and the Developers, There is no block whatsoever for this.

Regarding safety, the council has taken strides to help, including [making] Vernon Road [a] School Street, 20 mph [speed limits], Idling Action Days, a consultation on Idling Zones of which this area would be priority, new pedestrian markings on the crossing and a push for a countdown clock with SWR/Network Rail.

Coming up after May is a meeting I have facilitated between the school and Cllr Ehmann to connect the key people.

One plea, perhaps instead of playing politics with a much loved school’s concerns and issues, you come on-board with workable solutions to the safety of the site because it may be the DfE are not for funding a Primary School new build, having shown ambivalence to a Secondary School. It will be vital to continue to listen and act on safety concerns.

Editorial Comments

EastSheenMatters does not ‘play politics’; it merely seeks to draw to local public attention matters which might otherwise not be made public or adequately explored. But we leave readers to draw their own conclusions!

Safety concerns should certainly be in everyone’s minds, so if you have ideas beyond those raised above, send them to Cllr Cambridge – preferably with a copy to EastSheenMatters! But it does raise the question of whether, say, having buggies (or 1200 secondary students) make their way across the level crossing at rush hour times can ever be adequately safe.

One important difference, of course, between a primary school and a secondary school is the size of the footprint.