School for 840 pupils will replace sports club

Friday, 27 July 2012

How the expanded primary school could look on the sports club site

By Ruth McKee

MILL HILL Sports Club will be demolished and replaced with a new primary in a bid to ease pressure on the borough’s oversubscribed school system.

The decision to push ahead with plans to allow Orion Primary,in Lanacre Avenue, Colindale, to relocate and expand into the site in Grahame Park Way were approved at a meeting of Barnet Council’s planning and environment committee on Monday evening.

The sports pavilion buildings in Grahame Park Way will be torn down and replaced with a two-storey,four-form entry primary school which will have room for 840 pupils – double the school’s current capacity – as well as a 52-place nursery and a special needs unit.

According to a report drawn up by council officers, 120 more children were born in the Burnt Oak and Colindale wards in 2008/09 than in 2002/03.

The report also cited the plans to build more than 10,000 new homes in the area, creating a population influx which would pile more pressure on already overstretched schools in the area.

Blessed Dominic Primary School, which currently shares the Lanacre Avenue site with Orion Primary, will then expand from a one-form to a two- or three-form entry.

Councillors were told: “This strategy of relocation and expansion will therefore allow the council to deliver four additional forms of entry in the Colindale area.

“This is the most effective and efficient way of meeting the urgent school place demand.”

Subject to approval by the mayor of London’s office, the £15.5million project will be funded through a mixture of government grants and council funding.

A date for work to begin has not yet been finalised.

ruth.mckee@nlhnews.co.uk

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