St. George's Update

An update on the issues associated with the redevelopment plans for St. George’s, which we’ve been working through over the past few weeks:

As you’ll remember St. George’s was granted permission for the building of a new block, close to Glasgow House, which would allow the school to expand to take more pupils from our local community. This redevelopment is expected to take two years to complete and, when concluded, will see an almost totally refurbished school able to support the great work that the new headmaster, Martin Tissot is doing.

As local Councillors, it is our job to make sure that these works do not cause unnecessary inconvenience and problems for the local community. Residents of Glasgow House, Lanark Road, parts of Dibdin House, Andover Place and Carlton Vale are all going to have to live next to a building site for some/all of the next two years and it is crucial that their interests are considered.

At our last meeting with residents, three major issues were identified – (i) the position of the building site compound, (ii) the encroachment of that compound into Lanark Road and (iii) the lorry movements that will be associated with the building works.

Here’s the progress on each:

• Position of the building site compound: We asked the team coordinating the redevelopment to look at alternatives to the compound being next to Glasgow House for the entirety of the building programme. Glasgow House residents (and those close by on Lanark Road) will endure a disproportionate amount of inconvenience and hassle due to these works and, by the middle of 2010, the majority of the work being undertaken close to Glasgow will have been concluded (the project then moves to the refurbishment of the existing school buildings near Carlton Vale). We’ve asked the school if they might consider moving some/all of the compound onto the land they use over the road to give Glasgow House residents a respite (and to say thankyou for putting up with the works). We’re currently in discussions and will let you know the outcome.
• Encroachment of building compound into Lanark Road: We’re very pleased to say that we’ve had some success with this, following discussions with the builders. The original plans were for the compound wall to extend out several feet into the road – which we thought was unacceptable and could affect driving down the road. Now the builders have agreed to pull the compound back off the road – it will now only go up to the edge of the pavement. Every little helps!
• Lorry movements on Lanark Road: We were very concerned to see that the builders wished to operate lorry movements from quite early in the morning and all the way through the period when kids were coming and going to school. In addition, Lanark is a busy road with many people wanting to access the Maida Centre and the Boy’s Club. We’re continuing discussions with the builders about regulating and reducing lorry movements when Lanark is likely to be busy.

The builders have indicated that the works are likely to start in the next few weeks, so we’ll continue to work on these issues and let you know the outcome. We have a meeting in the next couple of days, so we’ll report back then.

Lee