BSF and Camden – a Conservative Statement

A statement from Cllr Andrew Mennear:


BSF and Camden – a Conservative Statement

That the Government has had to stop the bulk of Camden’s Building Schools for the Future Programme is a huge disappointment. Local Conservatives are strong supporters of our local schools and recognise all the work which headteachers and their staff, school governors and Camden officers put in towards the development of plans which were not just about new buildings but also about transforming the type of education available in our secondary schools.

Cllr Andrew Mennear, the Conservative Group Leader on Camden Council, knows better than most how much work went into these plans having spent 2006-2010 as Camden’s Executive Member for Schools, putting a great deal of effort into keeping Camden’s plans on schedule and on budget.

“Of course I’m disappointed – we all are,” Andrew commented. “We moved heaven and earth to stay on schedule and on budget, taking on Judicial Reviews at the High Court and a determined anti-Academy campaign, as well as working hard to maintain the character of Camden’s secondaries within our BSF plans.

“However, while Camden was on schedule and on budget, the BSF scheme nationally has been characterised by overspends, delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy. I struggle to think of any BSF project that was completed on time.

“Labour left us with the largest deficit in our peacetime history, and £1 in every £4 they were spending was borrowed. The new Government is setting up a capital review team to look at every angle of departmental capital spending to ensure costs can be driven down, buildings built more quickly and a higher proportion of the money going directly to the frontline. So I hope it will be possible for the cancelled plans to be looked at again in the near future when the economy has recovered.

“In the meantime it is vital that the Labour Council does everything it can to ensure that the UCL Academy, new Swiss Cottage Special School and South Camden Community School, which are still under review, are given the go-ahead. These schemes deliver eight new secondary forms of entry which Camden, with our growing population, badly needs. I have already been in touch with Education Secretary of State Michael Gove’s office to stress the importance of these schemes. I hope Labour Camden will act in a similarly responsible fashion rather than setting up an oppositional campaign in denial at the state of the national debt that the Labour Government bequeathed to the country.”