Petition launched after Plumstead school closure proposal

Parents at a primary school in Plumstead have launched a petition after Greenwich Council revealed plans for closure.

Gallions Mount parents are worried about the need to transfer children to other schools.

It’s the latest primary school closure announced in the borough following a similar move in Kidbrooke.

It comes back to housing…again

Schools across London are seeing closures as enrolled pupils fall as birth rates decline, which is the reason given for the Plumstead proposal in the council’s report.

It states “it is considered that Gallions Mount Primary School is no longer viable as it has failed to recruit adequate number of pupils able to ensure its financial sustainability”.

A common theme behind declining birth rates appears to be expensive insecure housing alongside high childcare costs putting people off having children.

It’s an issue yours truly can attest to. Without meaning to bring out the violins, as a private renter it’s always on your mind that you can be evicted at short notice. Two months is currently the legal requirement even if you’ve never missed a rent payment and been a perfect tenant. Bad enough when living alone or with a partner.

With children? It’s a desperate situation.

That’s a situation many struggle with given they’ll need to find a full deposit for a new private rented home in addition to upfront rent (often in the thousands) after even finding a home and being accepted and paying a non-refundable deposit. Then there’s the security and financial/credit checks (that took me two weeks alone last time – not great with a two month deadline) and securing a removal van (more hundreds) or needing to pay storage.

I’ve known people having to move 30 miles away at short notice with resulting impacts on getting to work in the morning and children to school. In some cases having to present as homeless to the council – who had so little places they ended up an hour from schools.

With the number in people and families living in private rentals rising rapidly in the past two decades, it’s little wonder people put off having children until they feel secure. With house prices so high and social rent so limited for millions that’s currently never for many.

Rent reform is set to increase that period between notification and eviction to four months which should help – but it’s yet to become law.

Wrong choice to close?

However one potential issue is that where schools are being proposed for closure, large-scale housing developments are proposed and crucially with higher levels of secure housing than the norm.

In Kidbrooke, for example, a TfL-led development has 50 per cent affordable rather than the normal 35 per cent (at most) while metres away sits too large sits being developed by Greenwich Council consisting solely of hundreds of council housing on long-term, low cost tenancies.

Kidbrooke too is to see over 100 more council homes along Rochester Way plus the total number of homes at Berkeley’s Kidbrooke Village continually rises as each phase comes along.

It must also be noted whether Berkeley’s slow progress (20 years and counting with some major plots yet to start) hampers school numbers. It’s a far cry from when places like Abbey Wood estate saw 3,000 homes built in four years in the 1950s. Now that total would be a decade or more under the drip-feed of many private developers.

Plumstead  is set to see the 1,913-home Lombard Square open next year. This will have 40 per cent “affordable” housing.

Granted, some of that will be in the precarious shared-ownership bracket with high and growing annual services charges etc but a substantial number in the hundreds will be at social rent level.

Other schools are closer to new builds such as Bannockburn and Conway, yet pressure many new homes alongside those transferring from Gallions is a concern to parents.

It’s likely major new developments with higher levels of secure, truly affordable housing than the norm will lead to more local demand. How much more is the key question – and whether in five years time closing schools will be looked at as a mistake.

You can view the petition here.