Streetlife

Note that this plan involves selling 4 acres of council land and then giving the rest of it over to ARK.  The Council are giving away any oversight of the school, which has improved rapidly over the last few years.

If the Council were really interested in the consultation, why does the exhibition end at 7pm.  This makes it difficult for people who are working to get there.  The first is also carefully timed for school holidays, when parents might be away.  That's "consultation" for you!  Is it deliberate or incompetent?

Of course this is more selling of the Commonwealth.  The drivers of this are shrewed asset strippers and employ all the dark arts it would not matter to them whether it was a school or a hospital.  Just sell it to their mates at a confused but good price.

WBC will likely sell to their partner developer, the Berkeley Group. Pity the poor residents living around the area. They will cram in as many high buildings as they can , the residents will be told they are having their area regenerated.

Personally I would like to see the whole of the Elliott Building demolished  and a new school built in its place.  The existing building is not fit for purpose being freezing cold in winter and boiling hot in summer as there is so much glass.  It is in a very dangerous condition - I beleive that panes and shards of glass fall out on a regular basisand have been doing so for years. Lord knows how there haven't been serious accidents there.  Refurbishment of the existing building doesn't seem to go half way to creating a safe usable building.

I think the building is listed Jo M, so demolishing it will not be an option.

There is a petition on Wandsworth website to keep the listed building and refurbish it.  It can be seen and signed here

Thanks Jane - I will not be signing the petition...

There appear to be  two distinct issues here

1.  Elliott School was listed in 1993 as a Grade II building - yet Wandsworth appear confident that they will be able to demolish part of this listed building?

2.  Wandsworth want to sell a substantial part of the school land - while at the same time desperately extending Primary Schools, which presumably in a few years will lead to the need for more Secondary places?

Surely Elliott School should be refurbished and kept in tact to allow for future school development, not demolished, reduced and given away?  Recent details about the School seem positive which hopefully will encourage more pupils to take up available spaces.

Wandsworth Council applied for BSF (Building Schools for the Future), central funding via the Government a few years ago which unfortunately was not awarded.  During this period it appears that very little remedial work was carried out - they have allowed the building to deteriorate.   This is an extract from the  Wandsworth BSF application "The Listed building will be retained, and the later ROSLA block removed. The building will be completely re-clad to improve thermal comfort and reduce ongoing maintenance costs and energy use.

Faraday Project style arrangements will be created for each ‘house’ of classrooms with adjacent flexible spaces acting as house bases and for individual study, ICT resource and larger group presentations. This model has been developed with the School and Edunova through discussions over the last 2 years.

The building lends itself to adaptation in this way as it is a flexible concrete framed building, and was originally planned in a more vertical ‘house’ format. Elliott includes sufficient teaching accommodation for the predicted role increase. To accommodate the additional pupils and give more flexible dining arrangements, dining will be relocated to ground floor, which will also allow greater links with outdoor space.

Discussions with English Heritage have been started to establish support for this thorough overhaul of the building, but keeping very much to the spirit of the original.>>

Document: http://ww3.wandsworth.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/ennwkvm6gtx24hnvsx7uq2ucurihjdelxg7dffnw6qm2y46nu7z44vjrwwwbcdr7ugkofprskacszgbftlgmz2iutca/ElliotSchool.pdf

I'm trying to work out how different the two building proposals are.

Looking through old papers it suggests that the BSF project would have cost about £35m, but I can't find details for the new proposal building costs and the prospective sale of the land.  Meanwhile the council spent about £13m to purchase the Bolingbroke site and millions more for the refurbishment, for ARK. 

Could they not celebrate the school they already own by refurbishing it and retaining the land for now and the future? 

The final consultation date is tomorrow (Tuesday).  There is a campaign group, Save Elliott School, who can be contacted on saveelliottschool@gmail.com or go to their website