Richmond Council Denies Offering Site For Catholic School (Twickenham & Richmond Liberal Democrats)

Richmond Council Denies Offering Site For Catholic School

October 19, 2011 11:10 AM

• [Oct 18] The Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign writes: THE controversy in the London Borough of Richmond about the plan for a new Catholic secondary school took a surprising turn last night when the Council denied that any decision had been taken to offer the proposed site to the Catholic church.

The Catholic Diocese of Westminster has recently made an application to the Secretary of State for Education for consent to publish proposals for both a secondary and a primary school on the site. The application says that "The Council approached the Diocese of Westminster with the offer of the school site". But senior Council representatives said they were not answerable for statements made by the Diocese.

The denial was given in a heated meeting of the Council's Education Scrutiny Committee on Ocotber 17, in response to a legally-based challenge from Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign spokesman, Jeremy Rodell, that the Council had acted unconstitutionally. He said they should not have made the offer to the church without first taking an official decision to select that option rather than follow the normal process for a new school, which is to hold a competition. And a major decision like that would require consultation giving all the available options. None of that had happened.

Nick Whitfield, the Director of Education, explained that the Council's contract to buy the site depended on a number of conditions that the current owners, Richmond Adult and Community College, needed to meet before the purchase could be completed. And these were outside the Council's control. He and Councillor Hodgins* claimed that no decision on what to do with the site could therefore be made, so no offer had been made to the church.

The Committee agreed to minute the fact that there was disagreement between its members on whether or not a key decision had actually been taken.

* Cabinet member for schools

• Diocese of Westminster application to the Secretary of State for consent to propose a Catholic Secondary School in Richmond (see section 7 on page 4 - second paragraph)

• Diocese of Westminster primary school consent application

• Paper issued in advance of the Council's Education and Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting 17 Oct in which reference is made both to the new Catholic secondary and to a new primary school on the Clifden Road site (see page 28, 2013-14 entry).

• Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign