Forum Topic

New Secondary School for Brentford/Isleworth/Osterley

The submission for a new non-denominational, mixed, secondary school for 1150 children serving Brentford and Isleworth has been received by the Council.The school would be called the Bolder Academy and the proposed site is along MacFarlane Lane in Osterley (near the Tesco supermarket just off Gillette Corner).The proposed school is part of a larger plan for two schools and site swapping involving the Grasshoppers Rugby Club the site of which is to be vacated for the Bolder Academy. The proposal is that the Rugby Club will move to the northern half of the old White Lodge sports site along Syon Lane. The southern half of the old sports field is now taken up by the Nishkam all-through school (primary and secondary) for 1400 children which is currently under construction.To facilitate the Rugby Club move the Council is raising over £9 million to develop the northern half of the site and has also agreed to waive two years of rent arrears owed to the Council. £6 million will be in the form of a direct grant and the remaining money will be raised by selling SKY some of the council-owned Metropolitan Open Land adjacent to the proposed school site.A residents' campaign in Osterley fought a hard battle against building the Nishkam school on Metropolitan Open Land which had long been used for sports purposes. Despite overwhelming local opposition the Council's Planning Committee approved the submission at its meeting on 3rd December 2015.The main concern of the Osterley & Wyke Green Residents' Association (OWGRA) about the Bolder submission is that, even though problems of access to the school have been raised repeatedly, no satisfactory solution has been offered. Syon Lane is already highly congested and is in an area of very poor public transport (PTAL 0). As matters stand almost 3000 children and staff for both Nishkam and Bolder would all have to access the schools through Syon Lane. OWGRA has warned that this is both dangerous, unhealthy and will worsen already very congested traffic conditions and considerably increase levels of pollution.All the current information on the application is available through the OWGRA website: https://owgra.org.uk/the-bolder-academy/

David Pavett ● 3040d1 Comments

Absolutely right Dave, this was the very point raised by Cllr. Tony Louki at the recent IBAF meeting when the permanent closure of Church St. was confirmed. How on earth children from south Isleworth would be able to get to either of those schools by public transport was something councillors and officers ducked. It seems that consultation means nothing in Hounslow - after all what do we know? On top of those two schools we also have the prospect of The Green School for Boys (projected 1000 students) right on the junction of Park Rd and Twickenham Rd. just yards from the Busch Corner junction.But I'm afraid while we have councillors who are prepared to believe extremely questionable pollution data and swallow wholesale what officers are reporting instead of rigorously questioning what's in front of them, and asking relevant questions that many of their constituents are raising, this will continue. There was talk bandied around of TfL lobbing in some money - however, not one of our representatives actually asked what was on the table and how much and whether or not TfL would specify what it had to be spent on.

Vanessa Smith ● 3040d