A new free school for boys in Marylebone has been given the go ahead to build a ‘pop-up’ site in Brondesbury Park for two years, amid claims the temporary building is being ‘dumped’ on Brent.
Brent Council granted Marylebone Boys’ School permission to demolish an existing nursery building to create a “purpose-built, modular” building on land at the junction between Brondesbury Park and Christchurch Avenue.
The school opened last September in the former College of North West London campus in Priory Park Road, Kilburn, after it failed to find a suitable home in Westminster.
Its new temporary site will accommodate four year groups after managers realised its permanent building in Paddington Basin on North Wharf Road would not be ready for students to start school in September next year.
Richard Ardron, Headteacher of Marylebone Boys’ School, said he was “delighted” with the outcome of the planning meeting.
He added: “We are immensely grateful to Brent Council for supporting the further development of the school.”
A statement on the school’s website acknowledged the four storey building “is not as close to our final site as we might have wished,” but said the new site would offer fully-equipped science labs, a library and an ICT resource centre as well as on site sporting, cooking and catering facilities for 480 students.
The new ‘pop-up’ school is currently being constructed off-site and will be assembledin in time to house the September 2016 intake.
However, Cllr Carol Shaw, Conservative Councillor for Brondesbury Park, who led objections to the plans said: “Frankly the work to construct this school for the sake of two years will be really disruptive, and will create far more traffic as well as reducing parking.
“I would prefer this land were used for Brent school children or for a doctor’s surgery or nursery provision in Brondesbury. Instead, it just feels a bit like we’re being dumped on.”
The school confirmed the site will be vacated during the 2017-2018 school year, when Marylebone Boys’ School pupils should be able to take up residence in the permanent building in Paddington.
Responding to Cllr Shaw’s comments, Mr Ardron said: “A traffic plan had to be produced in order for the planning application to be accepted and this was scrutinised in detail at the planning meeting earlier this week, where the application was agreed.”
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