Still waiting for the Historic Parks Survey
September has come and gone and still we have nothing to report on the Historic Parks Survey - except that it now seems that nothing will emerge until January 2015, at which stage new drawings will be presented to English Heritage alomg with the results of the Survey. If they get support, the council will proceed to a pre-planning stage in April 2015, still requring English Heritage's go ahad, then to a full planning application in September 2015. We can read whatever we like into this but it is probably safest not to do so! However, it would seem unlikely that the school could open until September 2017, after Ashmole's proposed opening date (see below).
Ashmole reapplies
As expected, Ashmole has applied again to the Eduction Department to open a two form entry primary school from September 2016 within their existing site. Leaflets have been circulated locally asking parents who may wish to send their children their to register their interest. The level of local interest is one of the key factors to be taken into account when the application is assessed.
According to papers submitted to the Cabinet of Enfield Council, it is envisaged that roughly half the places at an Ashmole primary would be available to children in the borough. Ashmole is actually presented in that paper as an option for expansion, though it is entirely outside the council's control.
Grange Park expands
Enfield council has planning permission to expand Grange Park Primary School but is now consulting on changes to transport and pedestrian access arrangements. Traffic and related issues would of course become important issues if the council were to attempt to progress Grovelands.
In an article in the Advertiser, Gonul Daniels of SWEAT expresses concern that this will not be sufficient to meet local demand. She points out that Grange Park is close to Eversley (about the same as, say, Grovelands would be to West Grove) and will do very little to help parents in the "Fox Lane blackhole" who have been "turned down by every local school they have applied to".
According to primary school admissions for 2014/15 as they stood at April 2014, West Grove was not oversubscribed, though the final admissions data may tell another story.
The Fox Lane "black hole" - what the council thinks
SWEAT was also quoted in an Advertiser article on parents parking on zig-zag lines outside schools. The gist of the argument was that by not providing local schools for local children, the council was forcing parents to drive and then clobbering them with penalty notices when they found they could only park in zones that they should not be using.
Councillor Orhan, Cabinet member for Education, Children's Services and Protection, wrote a letter to the Advertiser in reply. She criticised SWEAT for using the issue to further their campaign. The most revealing phrase however was this: - "SWEAT knows that there are enough places at schools near to their homes...".
Given that this is the council's own view, it is all the more surprising that the council appears to be fixated on building a two form entry school on the Grovelands site. Yes, more places (four additional forms, they reckon) are needed across South West Enfield as a whole, but figures obtained from the council show that the growth in demand is likely to be greatest at the other end of South West Enfield, close to the North Circular Road. The council is in danger of deciding to place two additional forms at Grovelands, finding that one additional form is going ahead at Ashmole (see above) and then finding it can only provide one form further south where the need is greatest, and where as a result there is a danger of a much bigger black hole emerging (with even more parents having to drive).
A response making these points from Michael Clary, Joint Chair of GRA, has been published in the 15th October edition of the Advertiser.
In a sense there are two different problems here. One is the "black hole" issue, by no means unique to Fox Lane, which is at least as much a result of the distance-based admissions system as the actual number of places available. Overlaid on that is the general growth in demand across South West Enfield, which is greatest in the south. It is those areas which are going to be in the most need of additional primary places, not the area around Southgate Circus.
Just for good measure, another letter published in the 15th October edition of the Independent, making broadly similar points but starting from the council's decision to lease part of the Minchenden site as a special needs school rather than a primary. The lease is for two years, which does rasie the question if what then happens to the special school and the Minchenden site in general.
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