Is anyone else deeply concerned about the proposed relocation of Bowes School??

Consultation on the North Circular Area Action Plan

I have read in the North Circular Area Action Plan (NCAAP) that Bowes Primary School is going to be moved to the site of Broomfield School as part of this plan. Enfield Council have released an online document with the current site of Bowes School being marked as "Old School". In their words, "The intention of this document is to  provide an additional, informal stage of community engagement and stakeholder consultation to run for 12 weeks from Tuesday 22nd November - Friday 10th February 2012".

I was really hoping that my little girl would go to Bowes School when she is is old enough, and I have many reservations about the school's relocation to the Broomfield Site, including catchment area changes, which will undoubtedly be affected with the buildilng of the new flats nearby also. The current Bowes School site is being considered for a luxury appartment development, and I cannot help but think that the new playground that has recently been built at the end of Stanley Road is about the ideal size for a car park.

This deeply concerns me, and I feel that this has been kept very quiet as none of the residents on my road (Stanley Road) that I have spoken to are aware of this plan. If any of you are aware of this action plan and can contribute more to this discussion, I would grately appreciate it.

I am prepared to do a leaflet drop down my road (and neighbouring roads) and initiate a campaign, and if anyone else can help I would also really appreciate that.

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As a governor of Bowes Primary School I can confirm that there are no plans to move Bowes, or merge it with Broomfield School. Three years ago a proposal to create a "through school" for children aged 4-18 on the Broomfield site was considered, but the idea was later shelved.

Since 2009, Enfield Council has spent substantial sums upgrading the Bowes building. It has undergone a full external renovation and had some key internal improvements too. The school's next project is to re-design its enlarged playground over the next few months, in consultation with the children who will undoubtedly have plenty of good ideas.

Hi Mary-Louise.

Richard is right and the council has clearly made a mistake carrying over some out-of-date material into its current consultation.  I will ask the council to update its records a bit sharpish to avoid further confusion.

all best wishes

Susie

I did note the proposed development site #12 of Bowes Primary in the NCAAP document but had to look closely to find the ‘opportunity’ under Activities and uses. This outlines how important it is to reply to these proposals no matter how crazy or out-of-date they might be, I did wonder why TFL had been so generous to help fund the playground extension at Bowes, there are probably some plans sitting somewhere in the council offices for full conversion of Bowes Primary into 28 apartments!

Sad as it would be, I have to agree with Alison’s comments that the schools design is out of date and play area restricted, but until something much better is proposed with more open spaces, a playing field or two and more available classes to educated our children, then we wouldn’t want to lose our Bowes.

Peter - Friends of Bowes

I had a look and its really bizarre.  I don't know if Enfield has the money to do any of this so I maybe its just blue skies thinking from a bunch of (expensive) consultants. They seem to be the only people still talking about an all-age school. Worryingly they also seem to be planning to use the Bowes area to solve the housing problems for the entire borough.  They have listed a lot of potential sites for housing - I don't know if any of it is realistic but we need to encourage as many people as possible to go on the 4th.

Notting Hill Housing Trust is reviewing its plans to shoehorn lots of tiny flats into the area because so many people objected.  They are planning to build a lot of new housing which would have a real impact including increasing pressure for primary school places and shrinking the catchment for Bowes.

http://stopthea406flats.weebly.com/latest-news.html

 

I have added the consultation event as a new event listing on this site.

Looks like this hastily organised "Community Lunch" event is part of the response to discussions initiated on this forum and covered in Tristan Kirks articles in the Enfield Independent. Cllr Goddard promised to improve the consultation process - however making the Area Action Plan more visible on the Council website and putting a couple of copies into local libraries does nothing to address the fundamental flaws contained within the document itself.

If there are genuinely no plans to merge Broomfield and Bowes and re-use of the Bowes School building for housing why are these plans contained in the consultation document? 

Which others proposals stated in the plan have been dropped - and are there any replacement proposals which haven't made it into this iteration of the document?

I agree with Alison that as many people as possible should attend the consultation event and - whilst Tom has pointed out difficulties with responding - please do persevere to have your say on the online forms.

As well as commenting on the substantive planning issues my own response will include a comment on the flawed process of issuing documents for consultation which contain "outdated" proposals.

Thanks Tom for the lead on this.

I have just emailed LBE regarding the North Circular – Area Action Plan feed back form as well, it's outrageous that you only get to hear about these thing on forums such as this, I have had the North Circular – Area Action Plan (but only through our local resident association) for some time and was just going to send my comments via the email address provided in the document. It's interesting to note that the consultation period has been extended to the 24th Feb.

See you all on the 4th.

Peter

Dear Neighbours

I just had this reply from LBE

 

Dear Mr Williams

We appreciate the difficulties around downloading and filling out the current form. We have since set up an online version which can be accessed via
http://www.enfield.gov.uk/survey/north_circular___area_action_plan.htm

 

Please let me know if you have any problems with this and we look forward to receiving your feedback.


Ms Neeru Kareer

Planning Policy, Projects and Design
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