- Wandsworth Labour have voted to close Broadwater School in Tooting
- The proposals allow Paddock School to move to the Broadwater site, freeing space at the Paddock Upper School site on Priory Lane, Roehampton
- Conservative Councillors proposed guaranteeing the freed space in Putney for essential special needs provision, but were voted down by Labour members
- This means Labour’s proposals risk not meeting demand for SEND places in the borough.
Wandsworth Labour have voted to close Broadwater School in Tooting at a meeting of Wandsworth Council’s children’s committee, whilst refusing to support a Conservative amendment to ensure adequate SEND provision in the Borough.
The school community were taken by surprise when Wandsworth Council unveiled plans to close the school. The proposals are to place Broadwater pupils in local schools and repurpose the site for the provision of special needs education currently offered by Paddock School, which is based in Roehampton.
Closing Broadwater School would free up space at the existing Paddock Upper School site on Priory Lane in Roehampton. Using this space for educational purposes will be essential if the borough is to meet the projected need for 253 school places for pupils with severe learning disabilities by 2033/34. If this space is used for an alternative purpose, it would represent the net loss of a SEND school in the Borough.
The Labour administration voted against guaranteeing that the site would be used for SEND provision when a motion to this effect was put down by Conservative councillors.
Without this assurance, Conservative councillors then opposed the school closure but were outvoted.
Broadwater School occupies a historic site in Tooting and the school’s staff and families were taken by surprise during a difficult meeting with Council officials last week. The Council will begin a consultation process in October, but not before the Council’s cabinet rubber-stamp the closure at a meeting of the Council Executive on Monday 10th October.
To add to the uncertainty, Labour’s Council leadership failed to commit to forecasting school place needs across the borough for future years, leaving open the possibility of further school closures.
Cllr Matthew Corner, former school teacher and Nine Elms councillor, said:
“It was wrong for Labour to vote against a guarantee that the space freed by closing Broadwater School is used for the provision of SEND education.
They pledged to support children with SEND in their manifesto. Local families rightly expect them to do just that, especially after causing disruption with their plan to close a community school.
They must now guarantee that the space freed by moving Paddock School onto the Broadwater site will be used to meet the borough’s increasing SEND needs.”
Cllr George Crivelli, Wandsworth Conservatives education spokesman, said:
“We had hoped that the amendment would guarantee that the existing site in Putney is retained by Wandsworth council as an educational facility and that we can bring forward proposals at the earliest opportunity to use the vacated school site to meet the increased demand for SEND places in the borough. It was unusual that Labour could not commit to this”
