The Wimbledon Guardian is reporting that Merton Council is considering turning the Centre Court Shopping Centre car park into a new school, and/or buying back a part of Singlegate Primary School in Colliers Wood, which had been previously sold off.

We don’t quite know what they decided, as the public were excluded from the part of the Council’s cabinet meeting that discussed these issues, but the Labour councillor in charge of schools told the Wimbledon Guardian that “There are no firm plans for any new school at the moment”.

This seemingly contradicts decisions taken by the Council cabinet in February, when it was agreed that Merton would “officially register its requirement for a new site for primary school provision in the Wimbledon area” and “officially register its requirement for a new site for secondary school provision”.

Merton’s Lib Dems have long challenged the poor decision-making that led to the selling off of school land.

Update: At the July full Council meeting, Lib Dem councillor Iain Dysart demanded clarification – asking Labour to accept that “even the very best schools can’t expand indefinitely and that it would be better to state now that a new school will probably be needed and that at least would set a clear direction?”

Instead, Labour education boss, Cllr Whelton, refused to back the decision taken by the Council cabinet in February for a new school and just announced a further report:

“Clearly we are looking at all options going forward and that is why we have commissioned a further report in the Autumn to look into this matter further . . . . Clearly we have very long-term demand for places in this borough.”