Backlash against plans for boarding school
By Hannah Neary, Local Democracy Reporter
Plans to open a boarding school for teenagers have sparked a backlash among people who fear they will hang around in local streets and smoke outside their homes.
Residents in South Kensington have objected to plans for Baden Powell House to be turned into a school for GCSE and sixth-form pupils.
Mander Portman Woodward (MPW), which runs three independent schools across the UK, wants to transform the building into a boarding school for GCSE and sixth-form students.
The site is opposite the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. It was built in 1959 in memory of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement.
The building is currently used as a conference centre, hostel accommodation and event space.
MPV already uses part of the site for teaching and plans to revamp it with classrooms on the lower floors and boarding accommodation for 76 students on the third to sixth floors.
A report by the council’s director of planning said: “Subject to conditions, the proposals would have an acceptable impact upon neighbouring living conditions, parking, or on flood risk and drainage.”
But the council received 18 letters from locals objecting to the plans.
One said they feared nearby homes would be used as a space for pupils to gather and smoke.
They wrote: “Without strict regulations being in place from MPW we will have teenagers using the mews as their get together place out of the building, kids smoking etc, as this has already happened with students before.”
An agent for the school said it MPW has a good relationship with the local community and will hire staff to make sure pupils don’t disturb locals.
Kensington and Chelsea council will decide whether the plans go ahead at a meeting on Tuesday, September 6.
Pictured top: Baden Powell House in South Kensington (Picture: Player Roberts Bell)
Everyone at the South London Press thanks you for your continued support.
Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has encouraged everyone in the country who can afford to do so to buy a newspaper, and told the Downing Street press briefing:
“A FREE COUNTRY NEEDS A FREE PRESS, AND THE NEWSPAPERS OF OUR COUNTRY ARE UNDER SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL PRESSURE”
If you can afford to do so, we would be so grateful if you can make a donation which will allow us to continue to bring stories to you, both in print and online. Or please make cheques payable to “MSI Media Limited” and send by post to South London Press, Unit 112, 160 Bromley Road, Catford, London SE6 2NZ
