Amending application being preferable to delay

The Council has announced that a planning decision for the new primary school in Putney will be retaken rather than risk any delay caused by legal action. Wandsworth’s planning applications committee will redetermine the application to build a 420-pupil primary school on the former Putney Hospital site rather than contest a legal challenge in the courts.

Opponents of the primary school queried the council’s transport assessment of the development. The council had no written analysis behind its transport assessment and, while confident in that assessment, decided that fighting the legal challenge could delay the school opening beyond its 2015 target date.

Cllr Kathy Tracey, cabinet member for children’s services said: “It is unfortunate that a small number of people are trying to prevent a much needed primary school being built by tying us up in litigation. Rather than have this drag out through the courts the best thing to do is simply redetermine the application in a way that deals with the bureaucratic issues raised.”

The planning committee will hear the same planning application again but with written analysis to back-up its transport assessment.

The council believes that a new primary school is needed to cope with rising pupil numbers. The number of children being born in the borough each year has now topped 5,200. In 2001 this figure stood at 4,000. A new primary school is needed to meet projected demand in Putney.

If the planning permission is granted again, the new school will be run as an academy. This would make it part of the state sector but give it greater freedoms to manage its own affairs and work in partnership with other schools, academies and education establishments.

Putney Hospital, which is situated on the eastern edge of Putney Common, closed services to patients in 1998. It has remained vacant ever since.

The planning application will seek permission to demolish the existing hospital buildings and replace them with a new primary school and 24 homes

December 13, 2012