Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
London councils ‘eyeing up more ex-mod land’
Education chiefs have warned that an expected influx of London families moving to Kent will heap more pressure on schools in the county.
Councils in the capital are said to be waiting in the wings to buy up former Ministry of Defence land to house families in cheaper properties.
The east London borough of Redbridge has already rehoused 250 families at Canterbury’s Howe Barracks after outbidding the local authority to secure the homes.
This paper revealed last month how the move had put added strain on local services, including Pilgrims’s Way primary school, which Ofsted ruled had struggled to cope with 100 extra pupils.
But Kent County Council says it is braced for a further influx from London authorities eyeing up land which has been released by the MOD and is set to be auctioned.
The issue was raised at a meeting debating KCC’S latest school commissioning plan, which sets out how the authority will meet growing demand for places. It revealed that Kent will need the equivalent of 12 new secondary schools as numbers swell, but the county council is £149 m short of what is needed to cope with demand.
County councillor Ida Linfield (Lib Dem), who represents Canterbury, said: “Come to my division, which is the division with Redbridge families in it. There are four primary schools that are not coping; they are creaking.
“There is more MOD land in Canterbury which is coming on to the open market. It is the elephant in the room among primary schools in my division.”
When the families moved from Redbridge last year, 212 children needed to find a school. Pilgrim’s Way took on 100, with the other primary pupils going to St John’s (24), Parkside (20), St Stephen’s (three) and Canterbury Primary (one).
Archbishop’s gave places to 27 of the secondary school pupils, while others started at the Spires Academy (nine), Community College Whitstable (three), St Anselm’s (two) and the Canterbury Academy (one).
Education director Patrick Leeson said at a meeting last week that the council was only told about the plans by Redbridge to rehouse families two months before September.
“They could have told us several months before if they had chosen to,” he said. “Clearly when local authorities are finding alternative places for families they are not always advantaged families. I don’t want to stereotype anyone but clearly some have additional needs and they bring those needs into Kent schools. I suspect that is not going to go away and we will see further examples of significant numbers of families being moved to Kent by other local authorities.”
Mr Leeson said cuts to welfare benefits are also responsible for families moving from London into Kent, having left them with no alternative but to find cheap accommodation.
There were very significant numbers moving into north and east Kent, he added.
Canterbury City Council says it is monitoring the situation.
Spokesman Leo Whitlock said: “While we are not aware that any MOD land or any of its houses are about to come on to a fiercely competitive market, we are keeping a very close eye on the situation.
“We are always keen to explore any option that allows us to expand our provision of council-owned social housing but have to bear in mind we are spending residents’ money and sometimes have to compete with organisations who have much deeper pockets.”
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