Local residents gather to discuss Chigwell Row Infants School expansion
Mr Chowdhry visited the meeting for a short while as he had to rush of to some Essex Police workshops at Epping Town Hall later the same evening. Despite having sent across an email with a number of questions for the developers and the school management the email was not read out - so it was fortunate to some extent that he attended.
Mr Chowdhry, wanted to ensure that the consultation had been undertaken correctly and asked about how news of the meetings was shared with the community. The school described how they had sent letters personally to homeowners close to the school, had published the details for the meeting in the local media and had corresponded with parents of children at the school. It would seem that proper process was followed.
Mr Chowdhry, asked if there were any plans for further expansion in later years and was told that no further development could take place as the current proposal meant the school had reached it's maximum build and potential. We are not 100% convinced by the statement as the school had to purchase further land to expand the school on this occaision and could surely do the same again. Though we raise this point for the record we are not opposed to the current expansion of the school.
Mr Chowdhry asked what car parking risk assessment had been undertaken. The representative from the developers admitted that no assessment had been made and said that it was a good point and something they would consider. A local resident at that point shouted out that users of the school are local people and traverse to school by walking. Mr Chowdhry, asked the school how many people drove to school and he said no data existed for this, a matter the school staff confirmed. We are a little concerned by this point as the current admissions policy stated on the schools consultation document states that priority admission by catchement (geographical proximity) is only 3rd on their list of priorities. We copy the list of priorities below:
Admissions Policy
There is no guarantee of a place for children living in the priority admission area.
In the event of oversubscription places will be allocated using the following criteria in the order given:
1. Looked After Children and previously looked after children (as defined in the Primary Education in Essex
2020/2021 booklet);
2. Children with a sibling attending the school;
3. Children living in the priority admission area;
4. Remaining applications.
With this in mind we will be sending letters to homes near the school to see how they feel about the increased level of students and potential parking issues. We do not do this to create animosity against the proposed expansion but because we feel local residents should be aware of the potential problems they could face from the increased student intake at the school. It should be noted however that we are only talking about an additional 15 students. Moreover it was stated that the owners of the Two Brewers Pub allow parents to park in their car park during school opening and closing times.
There is a small car park across the road from the school, however the car park across the school closes at 6pm and the consultation meeting started during a time the car park would be closed. During the consultation Mr Chowdhry was required to park on a local unrestricted residential close so evening meetings could impact on local people.
Mr Chowdhry also inquired about the potential increase in noise pollution from additional students using external communal areas. He felt a specific consultation should be taken with homes neighbouring the school grounds so that their concerns could be heard and addressed. One resident stated that hearing children play was a pleasant sound during the meeting and we have been advised that other neighbouring homes have stated the same.
We have asked the headteacher to provide a feedback report from the consultation that we can share with the wider community.
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