DEMAND for primary class places in the borough has reduced - but Hillingdon Council has still agreed to build a new school on green belt land in Hayes.
At its cabinet meeting on Thursday (28) the Tory-led council agreed to the idea of a new primary school at Lake Farm, after claiming it had little other alternative sites.
In fact, no other site for the new school was considered at the meeting. Now the idea has been given approval, designs will be drawn up and a planning bid submitted.
Updated pupil forecasts show that 26 additional forms of entry - or classes - were needed for the borough, a reduction from the 32 previously forecast. It means only two new schools are likely to be built, instead of four. The other is at RAF Uxbridge.
Council leader, Ray Puddifoot (Con, Ickenham), explained the reasons why a five-hectare site in Botwell Lane, opposite Lake Farm Country Park, was chosen. He said: "Across London we are having to deal with a huge rise in the number of primary school children.
"We are identifying sites where places are needed. If there is more demand in Hayes for schools we are not going to build one in West Drayton. We will put the classrooms where the children are."
Earlier, Mr Puddifoot had given a promise that green belt land in Hillingdon would not come under threat from the decision. "I can give a categoric assurance that under this adminsitration we will never see a threat to the green belt."
He said suggestions by the opposition Labour group on the council, that a school could be built on a derelict coal yard instead, were not feasible. "We will not put children in that environment," he said.
The report agreed by councillors stated that "there are no suitable brownfield sites available in the necessary location". Instead, it suggested using a get-out-clause to allow building on the green belt.
"A special circumstances argument could be made for the Lake Farm site. The design of the school would need to minimise its impact on the openness of adjoining green belt land. This limits the size of the school to the smallest required to address the shortfall.
"There would also need to be extensive landscaping to integrate the school into the country park location."
