Remembrance Sunday is fast approaching. So you need your poppy. Look out for local sellers at Waitrose this Saturday and Sunday. Over £2,500 was raised last Saturday.
The Park Manager will be speaking about the Park at Tower House School 730pm this evening.
The DfE wrote to Achieving for Children on 22 October 2024 about the project to build the new secondary school at the Stag Brewery site. The Council has published the letter today.
The letter below raises major questions about the conduct of the Planning Inquiry which is currently due to go ahead on 5 November 2024.
It appears that DfE funding for Livingstone Academy will be reconsidered. If the funding was withdrawn, that would require a major rethink about the use of the site. Many of the problems highlighted here in previous postings and by parties opposed to using the site for a secondary school would be substantially diminished.
Can the Public Inquiry realistically proceed with such an important question to be decided by central government hanging over the whole hearing?
Which comes first, a decision on planning or policy?
The letter refers to discussions with the Council and that is of course necessary and proper. But will the Council make any reference to the substantial and well-founded reservations voiced by the community. They have never paid any heed to the local community to date: how do we make the Minister and the DfE aware of the position? Should we be pressing our local MP, who has to date remained entirely silent on the issue, to acquaint the Minister with the full position?
Review of planned new mainstream free school projects
As you may know, the Secretary of State has announced a review of planned
mainstream free schools, to ensure that they continue to meet a need for places in the
local area and offer value for money. I am writing to provide more information on this
process.
Context
Education is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to
opportunity and give every young person the best start in life, no matter their
background. The Government is determined to drive high and rising education
standards for children across the country. To achieve this, we need to ensure
government funding is targeted where it is most needed.
Significant money has been spent to create surplus capacity through the free schools
programme. For example, the National Audit Office set out in 2017 that of the 113,500
new places in mainstream free schools due by 2021, an estimated 57,500 amounted
to spare capacity in the new schools’ local area. Meanwhile, in the fourteen years since
the cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future programme, some of this
funding could have been put to better use improving the deteriorating condition of our
existing schools and colleges.
Review of mainstream free schools
The Secretary of State has therefore asked the Department to review mainstream free
schools planned by the last government, and that have not yet opened, to ensure that
they continue to meet a need for places in the local area and offer value for taxpayers’
money. As part of this, we will also take into account the nature of the provision that is
proposed and any impact on existing local providers.
This process will allow us to work closely and openly with you as we progress with the
review and we will engage with local authorities and trusts with more details about
what this means for individual projects shortly.
The Government’s priority is to ensure children thrive in whichever type of school they
are in – including free schools. Because capacity varies from place to place, the
Department will continue to open planned new schools where they are needed and
represent value for money. We also value the role of academy trusts within the school
system. Strong trusts use their collaboration and leadership to deliver exceptional
results for children and young people, including those in disadvantaged areas.
Academy trusts will continue to have a crucial role in our mission to break down the
barriers to opportunity.
As part of this work, we will be in contact with you very shortly to discuss the following
projects and explain more about next steps:
We are just nine days away from the start of the Public Inquiry on the Stag Brewery Development. Now that the Council has, belatedly, conceded that it will livestream the proceedings ‘at a basic level’ it is important that good use is made of the facility. Updating of relevant information will be posted here.
Attendance at the hearings at York House starting at 10am each morning is also important for the ‘biggest project in Mortlake in 40 years’.
Regular reports from the hearings will be posted here. To see those you need to be a subscriber to this blog. To join the site google EastSheenMatters.
Richmond Council is consulting on a CPZ proposal in Richmond Park Road. As always these proposals are regrettably divisive. The Council is keen to expand the Controlled Parking Zones and manages the process with that in mind.
Most of the consultation letter is set out below. The whole can be found at https://haveyoursay.citizenspace.com/richmondecs/richmondparkroad-24/
This presents a number of problems. The petition refers to ‘residents of Richmond Park Road’ without identifying how many. The petitioners have sprung this on the road. The Council states that it is consulting the residents of the section of the road where the zone is proposed. In reality the whole road will be affected.
“The Council would like to demonstrate that an extension to a CPZ has the support of residents so a good response is very important, although the Council will not base its decision on residents’ wishes alone.” This undoubtedly makes residents suspicious about their motivation.
There has already been uproar in the road and because the petitioners are anonymous it creates an unhealthy atmosphere. There are various ways of damaging a community. The Council seems to have found another one.
Closes 1 Dec 2024 Opened 25 Oct 2024 Any queries please contact: onsultation@richmond.gov.uk
The Council has received a petition from residents of Richmond Park Road (between the Upper Richmond Road West and Shrewsbury Avenue) requesting the existing controlled parking zone (Zone ES1) be extended to this road. It is understood that these residents have signed this petition in view of difficulties they are experiencing in parking near to their home.
We are now consulting all residents of the above-mentioned section of Richmond Park Road on the possibility of joining Zone ES1.
Have your say
Please give us your views by completing the online survey.
If you are unable to complete the survey online and you would like a paper copy of the questionnaire, please call 020 8871 8929 leaving your name and address and quoting reference ‘Richmond Park Road consultation’ and one will be posted out to you with a postage paid return envelope.
The Council would like to demonstrate that an extension to a CPZ has the support of residents so a good response is very important, although the Council will not base its decision on residents’ wishes alone. All feedback to this consultation will be considered by the Council along with all relevant traffic management and other highway factors, prior to a decision being made on the way forward.
Well done to Lisa and her crew at the Hare and Hounds. They really brought the crowds out this morning with a competition tour round East Sheen. Four hundred tickets sold. A great community activity. Watch out for more upcoming events.
Richmond Council announced last night that they have taken steps to get together a streaming provision for the hearing of the Public Inquiry on the Stag Brewery developmenr which commences at York House on 5 November 2024.
A question arose about the history of Richmond Park Academy during the discussion about the history of East Sheen at the Barnes Homeguard Association yesterday. It is the most recent in a succession of schools that have occupied the location on Park Avenue and Hertford Avenue in East Sheen.
There has been a school at the site since 1895. East Sheen County School for Boys opened on 18 January 1927 on Hertford Avenue. A review of education in the county commencing in 1937 concluded that local population numbers were relatively stable so there were significant economies to be made by reducing the number of county schools in the borough from four to two. In 1939, despite local opposition, the boys from Richmond County School were merged with East Sheen County School for Boys at the Sheen site and renamed Richmond and East Sheen County School for Boys and in 1957 as Shene County Grammar School for Boys.
From 1973 the former grammar school sixth form was expanded and the school became Shene College, predominantly a sixth form college but, due to the remaining grammar school pupils, not entirely so. With dwindling pupil numbers and some staff increasingly sharing roles across Richmond and Shene sites, the remaining pupils and staff of Richmond County School for Girls merged with the remainder of the boys’ school at the Shene site in 1974.
In a further borough education reorganisation in 1977, the Shene site became the Shene Comprehensive School. The school retained its predecessor’s motto: “Enrich the Time to Come” and the school crest was a deer surmounted by a globe. The motto is now ‘Find Your Remarkable’ and the crest an acorn tree.
A major reorganisation of education and the end of selective education in the borough in the early 1970s caused the demise of the school. Shene Grammar took in its final intake of pupils in September 1972.
As a result of unsatisfactory attainment over several years, an OFSTED report in September 2007 gave Shene School Notice to Improve. In August 2010 Richmond upon Thames Council announced that the Department for Education had approved the proposal to grant the school status as an Academy. Shene School closed and in September 2010 Richmond Park Academy opened on the same site. In 2011 the academy secured almost £10 million of government funding for building improvements. Renovation and new building work was finished in 2015, A monitoring inspection conducted in December 2011, 15 months after the school re-opened as an Academy, noted that the school had made good progress in raising standards and that teaching was improving, with an increasing proportion that is good or outstanding.
In December 2022 Richmond Park Academy was fully inspected by OfSTED and achieved a good rating in all categories. Summer results in 2023 reinforced the school’s growing reputation where outcomes were placed in the top 10% for attainment in England.
Save to make money for use elsewhere in the borough what sense does it make to build another secondary school a mere mile away to threaten the now excellent offer at Richmond Park Academy?
Roger Parker noted the item on local residents In East Sheen in or about 1871 posted yesterday, which included a description of Christ Church. Built in two years from 1862 it was consecrated in 1864 as a memorial to the then late Edward Penrhyn – viz Penrhyn Crescent.
Roger writes: Christ Church is open each day and with new state of the art lighting recently installed, visitors can see not only the stained glass window mentioned in the item but also the fine chancel wall paintings and artwork on the wooden chancel ceiling, excellent examples of Victorian church art.
See also post on 24 September at https://childlawobserver10.com/2024/09/24/the-parish-of-st-marys-mortlake-with-christ-church-all-saints-east-sheen-2/
One discussion point at the Barnes Home Guard Club at 11am today
76a Richmond Park Road
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