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Boris clears plan to sell Holland Park fields
Mark Blunden, Evening Standard25.07.08
The Mayor has approved a controversial multi-million pound deal to sell off the playing fields belonging to Holland Park Community School.
Boris Johnson waved through the sale of the £72.6million grounds at Holland Park Community School to fund new buildings, sports pitches and an Olympic-size swimming pool.
But residents, including ex-Tory minister Sir Timothy Sainsbury, are furious at the loss of more than 1.6 acres of land. The school will be knocked down and replaced with a brand new "facility" with an extra 100 places, a gym and 20 per cent more outside space but with luxury flats on the fields. The Government Office for London will make the final decision on the sale but the matter could go to the High Court.
Sir Timothy said: "There's a great deal of hostility towards these plans. Now we will wait and see what the Government Office for London comes up with, which will be to call it in and have a public inquiry to give a more independent assessment than Kensington and Cheslea."
David White, chairman of the Campden Hill Residents Association, said: "We're very disappointed with the Mayor's decision given he's said so much about not selling off school playing fields."
Mr Johnson called the scheme "a school fit for the 21st century".
Reader views (4)
Al Hamilton misses my point entirely. My wife and I belong to no party. The issue is the misuse of all public space, especially schools, hospitals etc and the precious outdoor, green, spaces they provide local communities. Children up to 18 need outdoor space in which to play and grow. Councils of all political stripes are inept at focussing on children's need for safe and healthy space in which to grow. The sell off of playing fields, as at Holland Park, or the brutalistic over expansion, South Camden Community, or the loss of outdoor space at Edith Neville, are our generation's failure to our children. I had hoped for better, frankly, and am saddened to note that Lib Dems and Conservative educational policies are no better than what is already on offer.
- Paul Lettan, London
A very disappointing decision. And thank you Paul Lettan for reducing a serious issue to just another whinging party political point-scoring exercise. Certainly Labour & LibDem councils have never closed schools, amalgamated them, or sold off any playing fields.
- Al Hamilton, London
Yet another poor education decision, by the increasingly clueless Tory panjandrums. on the needs of children and young people. Camden Conservatives' witless decisions concerning South Camden Community School and the forced location of another school onto Edith Neville's already cramped site beggar belief. There 1800 children 3-18 plus 300 staff will be shoehorned onto a site two thirds the size of an athletics track for classrooms, halls, facilities and outdoor play space! And all this in a youth crime hotspot with 3 stabbings of children in as many years. A battery school complex for a battery fed education.
- Paul Lettan, London
Poor show Boris. Another "lung" of London gone.
- Albert Hall, hove england
