New school places given the green light
Hackney Council’s planning committee has given the green light for more than 210 new school places to be built in the borough, as well as improved facilities for existing schools.
The Council submitted the applications to build a new Nightingale Primary School and nursery on the former Downsview School site, in Tiger Way, as well as a new home for New Regents College, on the site of its former upper school, in Nile Street. To fund the ambitious schools building projects, the Council is acting as a developer and will also provide 264 private homes to help fund the building works. The programme will also raise around £12m for affordable housing in the borough.
This is a really important step in our programme to ensure that we have enough local school places for Hackney pupils. By 2021, Hackney needs an extra 1,260 primary school places and two new secondary schools, however we’ve got a £40m gap to fill. Funding cannot be found in existing budgets, so by building homes for private sale, we plan to provide a significant sum for affordable housing and go some way to covering the cost of delivering the high quality schools our resident have come to expect and our pupils deserve.
By acting as the developer, the Council will be able to ensure that the maximum amount of money is available to deliver these priorities as it eliminates the need for a private developer to factor in profits for itself and any shareholders.
Building work should start in autumn 2016 and be completed by late 2018.
The plans are a key part of the Council’s wider school places programme, which will see two new secondary schools built, and some school sites remodelled to make best use of Council owned land. For more information visit www.hackney.gov.uk/bsf