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Richmond Schools Forum Meeting
At a meeting of the Forum on 3 July 2025 the School Place Planning Update Report included a statement on the position of Livingstone Academy after the Inspector’s decision to grant planning permission at the Stag Brewery site.
“4.15 To support the Council to meet the sufficiency duty to provide secondary school places,
in March 2018, the DfE contacted Richmond Council with the proposal to relocate to
Mortlake the 11-19 element of Livingstone Academy West London, a 4-19 free school
approved in 2016 to open in Tower Hamlets. As Tower Hamlets subsequently decided there
was no longer a basic need for more places there, the DfE decided to move the school, as
11-19 only, to Richmond, where they knew that a new school was needed in the east of the
borough. A site, as part of the Stag Brewery redevelopment, was potentially available, so
they made their relocation proposal on that basis, which was agreed by the Council. The
redevelopment, including the new school, has been considered a number of times due to
objections but at the end of 2024 it was subject to a planning inquiry and was subsequently
approved by the Planning Inspectorate in May 2025. However, prior to the inquiry
commencing, the DfE announced that they would be undertaking a review of all proposed
free schools that were not yet under construction – this includes the proposed secondary
school. We are still awaiting a decision from the DfE.
“4.16 The case for the new school is included within the latest iteration of the school place
planning strategy and is based on demand for places, lack of capacity in the existing schools
and expected pupil yield from the many new developments planned in the borough.
“4.17 If the school is not approved then the council does not have sufficient capital available
to permanently expand existing schools in the borough; neither do the schools in the areas
of high demand have enough space to be expanded without major and highly disruptive
rebuilds. As such, we would look to work with schools to support demand through
temporary provision i.e. bulge classes where necessary.”
The mood within the Council seems to have become more pessimistic about DfE approval recently, on the basis that central government funding is limited. Or might they have heard whispers that the case presented above is not considered as strong as they might like to think. As some of the evidence given to the Inquiry argued.
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Tagged dfe, education, livingstone-academy, mortlake, news, planning-decision, politics, richmond-council, Stag Brewery
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No Reprieve for Richmond Parks Police
This is a mid-term report from the Police Liaison Group
EAST SHEEN WARD
- Here are the figures for total criminal incidents from March to June 2025 :
- March 45
- April 32
- May 59
- June 50
- Motor vehicle crime continues high.
MET ENGAGE
- lYou can enrol on the new Met communications channel at www.metengage.co.uk
GOVERNMENT SPENDING REVIEW
- There was little new for policing in the recent government Spending Review
- Strong neighbourhood policing continues to be the key Met objective with tackling knife crime and VAWG (Violence against Women & Girls) specific priorities
RICHMOND PARK
The future policing arrangements, which come into effect by 1 November 2025, are being progressively developed, and are likely to be :
- Richmond borough’s neighbourhood policing teams will now also be responsible for Richmond Park
- Conventional (Met) criminal incidents in the Park, which are very low in number, will be handled by neighbouring SNT (Safer Neighbourhood Team) officers, including East Sheen. This is in addition to the regular 999 Met Response cover.
- The future of enforcing Royal Parks regulations eg commercial vehicles/dogs chasing deer, still needs attention.
- The main concern is however the roads, and specifically the huge influx of training/sports cyclists at weekends when the park is like a velodrome in the mornings. Their lack of courtesy at pedestrian crossings is a huge concern.
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East Sheen wins Wimbledon
At this time of year we must pay homage to a resident of East Sheen who won the Ladies Singles at Wimbledon twice a hundred years ago and whose blue plaque shines on the front wall of her house in York Avenue.
Kitty Godfree, who had lost to Suzanne Lenglen of France in the Finals in 1923, duly won the title in 1924 beating Helen Wills Moody of the USA, and again in 1926 beating Lili de Alvarez of Spain. She thereby bridged the gap between Suzanne Lenglen who had won the Wimbledon Singles six times, and Helen Wills Moody, who went on to win the Wimbledon Singles 8 times.
Tennis at that time was an Olympic sport and Kitty won 5 medals at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920 and the Paris Olympics in 1924 and is the second most decorated female British Olympian, jointly with Katherine Grainger the rower. In addition, Kitty was the UK Badminton Champion from 1920 to 1925.
You can read more about her remarkable achievements on Wikipedia including her final claim to fame, vis. “she was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1987 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while shopping in a supermarket in East Sheen.”
She died in 1992 at the age of 96. Those of us who have lived in East Sheen for over 40 years will no doubt remember her cycling around East Sheen in her 90s.
Contributed by Tim Catchpole
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Pensford Field Environmental Trust (PFET)
The issue relating to the termination of the Trust lease at Pensford Field was reported in EastSheenMatters on 3 July 2025. This was in the shadow of the grant of a ten year lease to Dose of Nature, following private meetings between Sir Mark Rowley, Metropolitan Police Commissioner and Richmond Council Leader Gareth Roberts.
A Judicial Review Pre-Action Protocol Letter served on the Council has now come to light.
It alleges bias, lack of consultation and disposal of land for a consideration less than the best
that could reasonably be obtained. The Council is required to respond by 22 July 2025.
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Powerstation Youth Club
Powerstation Youth Club
121 Mortlake High Street,
Mortlake SW14 8SN
A great variety of events for young people for the summer
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Richmond Park Police Update
The Safer Parks Police Panel/Richmond Park met on Thursday 9th July 2025.
Cllr Julia Cambridge reports:
The SPPP meet every few months to discuss policing, hear about reported cases from Sgt Pete Sturgess and hear from Parks Manager Paul Richards on initiatives within the park. Attendees include Councillor Reps whose wards include Richmond Park, representatives of Pembroke Lodge, The Royal Ballet School at White Lodge, The Friends of Richmond Park, cycling, running and walking groups.
1. The Parks Police Unit will be disbanded by 1st November 2025.
2. The ten-person team covering Richmond and Bushy parks are down to six, due to officers going to other units.
3. No parks officers have been offered roles within neighbouring SNTs and have been told no extra roles will be created to boost SNTs who now will take on the policing of the parks.
4. Emergencies within the park will, as always, be attended to ‘within 8 minutes’ via calls to 999.
5. The policing of the park will be done by the three bordering Safer Neighbourhood Teams: Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside, South Richmond and East Sheen. The METS borders of those areas are on the graphic attached.
6. Training from the parks police to SNTs will begin in September with teams shadowing the work of the Parks Police. Members of the East Sheen SNT attended the meeting held on 9th July at Holly Lodge.
7. Going forward advice given at the meeting was for visitors to the park to download the ‘what 3 words’ APP or similar, which gives a location from a mobile phone which services can use to locate anyone when an address isn’t available.
8. Park Manager Paul Richards had held meetings with Detective Superintendent Chris Scammell and the positive news was that it is likely Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside and South Richmond SNTs would be able to utilise Holly Lodge as a base, which will lead to some visibility.
9. It was stressed the Royal Parks are a Charity and have no remit to employ private security which in turn would have no powers to enforce.
10. Discussion happened around the powers of a Local Authority primarily through Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs). The byelaws and civil measures that Local Authorities can deploy are not open to The Royal Parks Charity.
11. It was decided after the final meeting of the SPPP happens in October 2025, that the panel would continue. Members believed it was important to have a dedicated scrutiny panel representing park users. It was decided to continue with the input of the SNTs in place of the Parks Police Unit and with Paul Richards reporting on the projects happening in Richmond Park.
My reflections of this meeting are that firstly that specialist knowledge is about to be lost forever and secondly the Safer Neighbourhood Teams are already stretched, imposing more policing of a 2,500 acre site will further impact neighbourhood policing.
I wish some would make the connection that expecting them to police the Park with NO added resources and none of the specialist knowledge is going to impact on their work in policing our neighbourhoods.
Park Visitors to download the What Three Words app. Really? Are the police going to offer training on that?
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Tagged met, news, parks-police, richmond-park, safer-neighbourhood-teams
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Wimbledon Tennis
Local boy Joe Salisbury plays in the mixed doubles final at Wimbledon on Thursday.
Meanwhile in another court the Judge hearing the judicial review of the GLA decision to grant planning permission for the All England Lawn Tennis Club expansion has said he hopes to publish his decision by the end of July 2025.
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Richmond upon Thames Council Meeting on 7 July 2025 Public Question on Special Educational NeedsTribunal cases
The Question put was
Given the widely reported national statistics that there is about 97% success rate of appeals to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal against local authority decisions, will the Council state how many appeals were successful of the forty-seven Richmond upon Thames cases featuring in the Ministry of Justice statistics published in March 2025.
Answer from the Chair of the Education Committee
Of the 47 cases lodged with the First Tier Tribunal in 2024 17 were conceded by the local authority. A negotiated settlement was reached with parents in 22 cases and seven cases were withdrawn by the parents.
So effectively in 40 of 47 cases the child was deprived of a service to which they were entitled. A key question is when they were settled, given the usual time lapses between the parents’ first claim for support, the initiation of proceedings, directions hearings and final hearings.
We are hoping to hear more detail on those matters.
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Mortlake Mash-Up : The Vision
It’s a rather longer post than usual but it’s in a good cause! Scroll down to see the whole
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Tagged cycling, environment, mash-up, mortlake, news, richmond-news, transport, travel
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