Following the public meeting  about the plans to expand Dundonald Primary School on 22 June in St Andrew’s Church on Herbert Road, we wanted to let you know what the next steps will be and our thoughts.

Next steps

This is quite a long process. The consultation that ends on 11 July will be considered, and then Merton’s Council cabinet will make a decision on how to proceed in September.

Even if the Council decides to go ahead, the Council will have to apply for planning  permission, and the public would get to have a say on the design and look of the building at a pre-planning consultation stage.

Following that, there are some legal issues they would need to resolve: the discharge or modification of the restrictive covenant, any issues relating to the ownership of the pavillion/designation of open space, and the making of a statutory proposal for the expansion of the school under education laws.

And the Council has not yet consulted on catchment areas or any priority area.

Our thoughts

• The public consultation has been terrible – 4 particular low points stand out –  an investigation is being held into complaints that Cllr Peter Walker, the councillor in charge of education, allegedly broke council rules while campaigning for the expansion of the school; council officers have admitted that they have amended the plans during the consultation process, thereby shifting the ground on which a lot of public comments are based; the failure to predict public interest and provide a big enough room for the first consultation meeting; and the icing on the cake, that when delivering the consultation documents, the Council used a company that doesn’t deliver to houses with “No junk mail signs”, which gives an insight into what they think of their own consultation documents.
• The terrible attempts at ‘consultation’ could potentially leave the process open to legal challenge, costing taxpayers even more money. How is Merton now going to ensure the decisions following the consultation will be taken properly and impartially? We feel that the Council is directly responsible for the bad feeling and mistrust that has been caused amongst neighbours by the way the consultation has been carried out.
• There are genuine concerns about the plans that need to be addressed: the legality of breaking the Restrictive Covenant on using the land, protecting the open space in the future; and whether the school playground and buildings planned will be appropriate for twice as many children.
• And what about the future? A number of residents mentioned this at the meeting, and it’s something that we have been arguing since plans were put forward to expand over half the schools in the borough. You can see our 3 point plan for schools here. We’ve asked Cllr Peter Walker to respond to this plan, but so far he has failed to do so.
• After the botched consultation, residents’ views can’t properly be taken into account, and so we cannot back the plans. Today we read that talks have been planned for a new primary in the grounds of Rutlish School. We are pleased to see that the Council is thinking around the issues, and considering other alternatives, but we are slightly dismayed to see Cllr Walker describe the plan as a “long shot”. It rather gives the impression that they have failed to consider the wider strategy for school provision as they desperately try to find places to put our children. Merton desperately needs more primary school places, but this isn’t the way to go about it.