A great location for a possible new school, but residents oppose building on any of the Metropolitan Open Land

The latest version of a plan to build a 1,200-pupil academy-operated secondary school close to or even on (supposedly protected) Metropolitan Open Land in South Norwood Country Park and next to Croydon Arena will be given an airing tonight.

Croydon Council is staging a consultation event ahead of submitting formal plans in May – not that they’ve done very much to publicise tonight’s session. You’d think they don’t really want the public to be too well-informed about the scheme.

The consultation is taking place tonight at South Norwood Reform Church on Enmore Road, SE25, from 4.30pm until 7.30pm.

A traffic feasibility study, to see whether construction traffic or school traffic could access the proposed site, has been promised by Croydon Council. Its findings may be crucial.

Back in October, at the last public meeting about the project, there appeared to be a growing consensus around a scheme which avoided development in the Country Park. Then, residents’ group People for Portland Road said, “Whether or not the school will now be built will be determined by whether or not it gets planning permission. A decision is not expected until …  just after the council elections.

“The council had originally proposed building the new secondary school on two sites – the Arena and the closed down adult education centre on Sandown Road. To avoid being sandwiched between the two halves of the new school, Ryelands Primary School is now considering moving to Sandown Road instead.

“This idea would allow the new school to replace the existing Ryelands school, avoiding having to build on the protected Metropolitan Open Land on the Country Park.”

Tonight’s consultation should be important in confirming whether that solution is being followed through.

Coming to Croydon

• Fairtrade Film night, Antenna Cafe, Haynes Lane, Feb 27
• Fairtrade event, Upper Norwood Library, Mar 1
• St David’s Day quiz night, Ruskin House, Mar 1
• Coulsdon and Purley Debating Society, Mar 3
• Patchwork and quilting workshop, Upper Norwood Library, Mar 3
• Fairtrade stall at Food Market, Haynes Lane, Mar 8
• Upper Norwood Library Book Club, Mar 15
• Norwood Society talk, Upper Norwood Library, Mar 20
• South Norwood Lakes Playground group workshop, Mar 25
• David Lean Cinema: Basically Johnny Moped, Mar 27-28
• Croydon Half-marathon, Mar 30
• David Lean Cinema: 12 Years a Slave, Apr 3
• David Lean Cinema: The Great Beauty, Apr 10
• David Lean Cinema: Inside Llewyn Davis, Apr 17
• David Lean Cinema: Short Term, Apr 24
• Crystal Palace Overground Festival, June 26-29

Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 516,649 page views (Jan-Dec 2013)

If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com