No One Wins With This Proposed School Move to HA9
From "Consultation on relocation of Islamia Primary School from September 2024"
Go to the project
How did Brent Council come to make these two proposals? Did one council worker look at a map of Brent, see the empty lot on Strathcona and say, 'Oh, here's an empty building! Let's move Islamia School there!'
How can you make a proposal like this when the current infrastructure is inadequate and dangerous? Cars park on both sides of Carlton Ave East and Windermere Avenue and there is constant congestion, the 223 buses struggle to pass each other in opposite directions, the traffic created at school times is dangerous to everyone, cars honk, there is road rage and people drive on the pavement. This in itself makes the site of Strathcona unthinkable and unacceptable as a suitable location for a new school (not even mentioning Strathcona itself).
This in itself is THE reason not to move the school here. It's not a safe location for anyone - children, parents, local residents, including local children who seem to have been forgotten in this proposal.
Parents will have to drive or be forced to spend too long on public transportation plus a long walk from South Kenton station or an even longer walk or the 223 bus from Preston Road station (already overcrowded at school times). How does this benefit these young primary school children or their parents? Should they have to wake up more than an hour earlier in the morning and get home an hour or more later after school? These are young primary school children.
420 pupils where some are from the same family makes me estimate that there will be a minimum of 150 extra cars trying to go up and down Carlton Ave East and/or Windermere Avenue twice a day. It doesn't work now!
How can Brent consider moving a school without FIRST considering the road/traffic system? You can't 'fix it' after the school moves - and there's no way to fix it at all. No one from the Streets team came to speak at the consultation. I hear the plea from some of these poor parents from the school saying they're happy to take their children anywhere so their children can attend this school. After a week of travelling to this site, even the most committed will change their minds because of both their and their children's mental health, lack of sleep and stress levels.
What about the increase in air pollution for local children who are walking to school?
I'm only repeating what everyone else is saying - nothing here is new.
How can 'option 2' be to close the school? How can Brent even ask residents and parents to make this choice? Who came up with this insulting option?
Was this proposed move the genius idea of one person at Brent? How can it be supported by others in the council, none of whom live in this area obviously or they wouldn't have put this option forward or supported it.
The real question is, despite all the opposition from parents and most (if not all) local residents, has Brent Council already made the decision to move the school to Strathcona and are just wasting our time with this consultation and insulting everyone involved in the process?
Islamia School deserves a suitable site for their school and this is not it. Brent Council needs 'Option 3'.