Southwark Council is about to embark on the journey towards a new Southwark Plan.
We have three local problems around the planning designation we need to resolve to ensure proper state school provision in the Dulwich area.
I have formally requested the councillor Cabinet member for Regeneration who is responsible for this mark.williams@southwark.gov.uk please let him know if you agree with me and copy me. Without these changes we will not have enough primary or secondary places in the right cirumstances and places:
1. Dulwich Hospital. After new health care provision that the remainder of the site, circa 18,000-20,000m2, be allocated for a new secondary school. Without such a planning designation change the government DfE will be unable to afford this much land as the cost would be more than £60m. (The East Dulwich Police station was sold for £6M and is 1/10th of the space because it wasn’t in planning terms protected as a site for eudcational use).
2. 520 Lordship Lane (former Harvester pub) That this be designated for education use. This would enable the Harris Primary school looking for a home to be placed there. Without this it seems likely that the new Harris Primary school will be placed at the Dulwich Hospital site OR they will apply to build on the East Dulwich Harris Girls Academy Metropolitan Open Land. Both of these options are much less desirable than 520 Lordship Lane.
3. 62-68 Half Moon Lane. The Dulwich Estate carved the absolute minimum space from the former Kings Biological Sciences centre for the Judith Kerr Bilingual Free School that opened 2013. Effectively they provided the main building and a tiny tiny playground – fencing off most of the site for future residential use. The lease includes a condition that the school must never talk about the minimal space leased to them. Ideally the whole site would be designated for educational use helping to push the Dulwich Estate towards being more charitable and the whole site being made available for the Judith Kerr Bilingual School. Effectively the Dulwich Estate have carved 2/3rds of the site for future residential building so that they provide more subsidy for private schools more over the state provided free school pupils having reasonable outside space.
To see the full email comunications – Dulwich Education Planning Status Request Email 26 August 2014
What other planning designations do we need changed?
Thank you for this useful update.
520 Lordship lane: Putting a school on the Harvester site would have horrendous implications for traffic at an already notorious congestion point morning and evening – and that is without adding pedestrian and cyclist crossing lights which, given the need to get more kids walking, w/should be a requirement. At the very minimum the S Circular to the west would need to be widened to allow two lanes of traffic from further back from the lights than at present. Alternatively an overhead walkway would at least deal with pedestrian traffic, but not the additional cars.
In East Dulwich most schools admissions distances are on average 400m. Almost everyone walks to school. It would ensure the adjacent traffic lights get a pedestrian phase added – overdue by decades.
Both the South Circular and Lordship Lane there have huge traffic flows. The replacement of a pub with a massive car park with a school should in traffic terms result in much less traffic and parking.