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As mentioned elsewhere on this site, Ashmount School is moving to the old, derelict, Crouch Hill Park
Work is due to start on-site in January 2011 and finish in the summer of 2012.
UPDATE: Public Meeting 7pm on 23 March 2011
@ Bowlers Nursery, 81 Crouch Hill, N8 9EG
Representatives from Islington Council and Willmott Dixon will be there to answer your questions and provide information about the future of Crouch Hill and the construction works. The meeting will be chaired by Jeremy Corbyn MP. -
Is that the bit of the Parkland Walk where the derelict playground is?
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Think so. There's another thread from Nov last year that mentions it, the bit at the totem poles. Weird how OP would search out old info, allude to it, then not link to it. Almost to avoid drawing attention to it.
Has work started on the site David Barry? The phrasing of it reads like January 2011 is some time in the future... -
I'm confused as to how this is a new park for the area, aren't you just telling us that a school is being built on the old park? Do you mean the new park will be on the site of the old school?
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To what extent will this new school encroach onto the Walk, one wonders. They’ve already built one school on the track-bed at Muswell Hill.
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50 trees felled around Parkland Walk, while the work goes on. Take it the building will be right u
cyclingcouncillor.com
cyclingcouncillor.com
some details of the plans are on the Friends of Parkland Walk site (sorry can't link to it - it's 'banned' at my work...)
and looks like it's too late to get involved in the process (objections were to be in by 14th March). -
Here is the link to Parkland walk. It has some interesting maps how that some of the short cut paths that there are around the site are going. http://www.parkland-walk.org.uk/
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Gosh, and all I thought I was doing was posting a notice of a public meeting, (which as I post is on the day after tomorrow) which would give people an opportunity to find out what was going to happen on the Crouch Hill site.
So to all responders I would start by saying come along to the meeting ask your questions there.
But in the meantime I will try to respond to some of the points raised.
And I will do these as separate posts - one response to each point. -
@Misscara
"Is that the bit of the Parkland Walk where the derelict playground is?"
I imagine so. The site is to the south of the Parkland Walk and lies between Crouch End Hill and Crouch Hill. Apart from a number of access points off the Parkland Walk, both formal and informal, road (ie vehicle) access is off Crouch Hill. if you do a google map on the post code it comes up. N8 9EG does it.
It was the " Crouch Hill Recreation Centre" which is now derelict, but there is still a nursery operating on the site -Bowlers' - and they are not moving, and it is in their building the meeting is happening. -
The maps at http://www.parkland-walk.org.uk/ show it as more-or-less where the adventure playground is, though the main building is higher up the embankment and further west away from the main road.
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@graeme
"Think so. There's another thread from Nov last year that mentions it, the bit at the totem poles. Weird how OP would search out old info, allude to it, then not link to it. Almost to avoid drawing attention to it"
Now there IS a suspicious mind.
If I had not wanted people to look for the old info, then I would not have mentioned it surely, as mentioning does draw attention to it...
I did not particularly search for it either - it came up on google and I would have happily put in a link had I known how to do it on this system; especially as it says nice things about Ashmount School where I am on the governors. -
@graeme
"Has work started on the site David Barry?"
Yes, to a limited extent. Various hoardings erected and so forth but the main contractors dont start until April (this year 2011)
"The phrasing of it reads like January 2011 is some time in the future..."
True. That was lazyness on my part , I just cut and paste from the Islington Council Website, and that entry was one which has been there for some time but recently up dated to include notice of the meeting. I suppose when the original text was written January was in the future and now it is in the past...... -
@Misscara
"I'm confused as to how this is a new park for the area, aren't you just telling us that a school is being built on the old park? Do you mean the new park will be on the site of the old school?"
Well its Islington who call it a "new" park rather than an "old park which we have really neglected over the years, that is heavily overgrown with invasive scrub, used by very few people,with the odd burnt out vehicle to add atmosphere, which we have finally got around to doing something about" Which would, in my personal view, be a rather better description. -
@Misscara
"....a school is being built on the old park?"
A new school building is being built in the park; this will occupy the same space as the current, derelict, recreation centre building and the Bowlers' Nursery. That is, it will occupy the same "footprint"; so none of the park will be lost. -
Thanks David
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@Arkady 3
"To what extent will this new school encroach onto the Walk, one wonders."
Not at all, the Parkland Walk is unaffected.
"They’ve already built one school on the track-bed at Muswell Hill."
Well the whole site -That strip of Parkland Walk and the Crouch Hill Park that lies within Islington is designated "Metropolitan Open Land" which gives it a highly protected status in law. For example you can only get permission - with great difficulty - to replace EXISTING buildings. You cannot extend, and you could not do anything that would block or encroach on the Walk. -
@graeme
"50 trees felled around Parkland Walk, while the work goes on"
No trees will be felled on the Parkland Walk. Some trees will be felled on the site, others will be moved. I have no idea where that figure of 50 comes from. Every tree lost will be replaced by two new plantings.
"Take it the building will be right u'
A bit missing here, but worth stressing that the building will only be "on" the Parkland Walk in the same way that there are many houses with their bark gardens "on" the walk.
"cyclingcouncillor.com'
Not reliable, in fact highly misleading at the time, and now almost two years out of date.
"some details of the plans are on the Friends of Parkland Walk site (sorry can't link to it - it's 'banned' at my work...)'
Possibly, you could also have a look at the Ashmount School Site for info:
http://www.ashmountprimary.co.uk/
and of course come to the meeting
"and looks like it's too late to get involved in the process (objections were to be in by 14th March)"
And I think you will find that was 14 March 20O9....
The project has gone through a long planning process which has involved not one, but two public consultations, but as the major consultation was held 5 years ago I am not surprised if people have either forgotten it or arrived in the area since then. -
Good. Else where would the future trains go?
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Kind of feeling six years of frustration there.
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well I say Good Luck Ashmount!
I think a school linking onto Parkland Walk is great - more kids, more people walking, less opportunity for general nefarious activities. -
@David
You probably don't know the answer to this but what will happen to the skateboard ramp, if anything?
It's sketchy but still skateable and as far as I am aware may be Islington's only public skateboarding facility!
I've emailed Ashmount to try and find out or get the name of someone to ask, but had no answer yet. -
A substantial new skateboard facility has the go-ahead on York Way as part of the KX redevelopment. York Way marks the boundary between Camden and Islington, so it almost counts. The big one on Camden Rd is probably still closer.
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There's a skateboard facility in Finsbury Park, can't you use that one instead?
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Arkady, I didn't know about the York Way plans. Cantelowes is the one on Camden Road, which is closer, and there's a new couple of bowls being finished off in Clissold Park as well.
Misscara, of course and I do, as do many others, but there's also a half decent ramp at Crouch Hill that I'm wondering whether will vanish - rescuing it and sticking it next to Finsbury Park skatepark would be a good move. -
I often wonder why there aren't more of these facilities and why the ones there are are really small so that only one person at a time can use them. I mean the one in the park is titchy, yet there is a massive concrete area next to it that doesn't get used for anything at all. They should have made the skatepark cover the whole area so that more people can use it, and maybe have different bits where little kids and those less skilled can skate and the bigger kids and adults can have their own bit. I always feel a bit sorry for the little kids sitting on the grass while blokes in their 40's take over the ramps, but my point is that it should be big enough for everyone to use. Folk always moan that kids aren't active enough these days yet the council stopped them skating outside the town hall in Crouch End where there was plenty of room for them to do so.
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I dont know what is going to happen to the skate park.
It may come up tomorrow night and if it does, or I remember to ask, I will post the answer here. -
@grame
"Whatdotheyknow"
Ah yes.
The ineffable Simon Kloot.
Always ready with a cheery conspiracy theory about me, and various other people, some of whom I knew and some of whom I had never met.
Used to send me emails (copyed to various other people) threatening legal action against me, and all in all made me out to be much more interesting than I am. He was a leading light in the "Ashmount Site Action Group" whose back gardens back on to the current school site and who opposed the school move. They thought their amenity would be reduced by anything that might replace it.
He has moved away now so things a bit duller here. (He never writes, he never calls). As you will see on the whatdotheyknow site - an excellent resource by the way, in general - his other big thing was a long running dispute with Inland Revenue, who it seems wanted him to pay tax, even though he was American. Tedious of the Inland Revenue I think we can all agree.
So here I am, typing all alone, not having had an abusive email for MONTHS.
Maybe Stroudgreen .org will come to my rescue..... -
Why not add a comment to the recycling debate. You'll no-doubt elicit some unwarranted abuse on there for just saying hello.
Its like poking a bull terrier with a stick. Everyone's having a go, its kinda fun.
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Well it's all good fun until someone gets hurt isn't it.
It'll all end in tears, you mark my words. -
Yes, people want to accept it and will try an improve its behaviour, but its in it's genes. It will eventually cross the line, bite someone and then get put down by the authoitays.
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@Papa L: the new KX ramps can (just) be seen here: http://www.kingscrosscentral.com/the_site
It’s the squiggly bit between sites Q2 and R4. The details are in the plans for R4, which can be found on the Camden Planning site. Or I could email them to you.
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Cheers Arkady, I'll hunt them out.
Misscara, I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments
The unused broken tarmac patch next to the skatepark is madness. If the council just concreted it, or even tarmaced it to decent road quality it could be used.
It's a classic case of the council doing something really good, ie building the park, and then failing to capitalise on it.
The skate park is small and very tight, especially because of the railings, but much loved and used. People using it manage to rub along pretty well and it's one of the few places kids, teenagers and adults of all backgrounds mix.
I fall into neither the kids or blokes in their 40s category (although sadly a bit nearer the latter), but I'd say the old blokes are probably more intimidated than the kids than the other way round! -
@Papa L - I think their plan was to put the basketball there after the 5 a side centre was built at the top of the hill (something I was in favour of but let's not start that again). They may still think they'll go with that plan at some point so that may blight the concrete patch for the moment.
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Tonights meeting went well.
(Apart from a faux pas by me which I would rather not discuss)
The skate board ramp is staying -
Oh go on David, you know you want to!
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You can't tell us and then not tell us David!
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@Shaun G - I remember that from another discussion about it.
Considering it's been sat there falling apart for some time, the basketball courts probably won't be moving anytime soon and the council has access to cut price concreting/tarmacing, they might as well at least resurface it smoothly and make it useable.
Thanks for that info David.
Was looking around the Crouch Hill site up the hill next to the Parkland Walk the other day and considering that its really wasted space at the moment in an area where space and good schooling is at a premium, these plans sound sensible. -
I mentioned the faux pas only to pre empt a report from some else at SG.ORG.
You had to be there really....... -
Did Coleridge School not just double in size just around the corner in the old TUC/Hornsey Art college building ?
Pity it is not a High School because there is as a real shortage of decent one of them around here
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Coleridge doubled the size of its intake several years ago; the school went from two form entry - 60 children a year in reception to four form entry - 120 children a year in reception. Even at that size its over subscribed.
Ashmount is a two form entry school (and on the Crouch Hill site cannot be any bigger) and is also over subscribed.
So basically the supply of primary school places in the area has gone up 50 per cent in the last few years due to the increase in Coleridge, and there still seem to be not enough. Presumably there must be a knock on to secondary places in due course. -
Remember this? Open day on saturday.
http://www.islington.gov.uk/childrens-and-families/education-and-childcare/5-16/SchoolsforFuture/crouch_hill/ -
The project Board has just reviewed the admissions arrangements for Ashmount. The background to this is that admissions for this autumn 2012 are based on distance measured from the current site on Hornsey Lane. Offer letters go out from the council soon after 15 April. Admissions for next year (2013) will be based on the same criteria as before, but distance will be measured from the new site. So the school will be closer to Stroud Green in all senses.
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Yes, Poxy is right. Ashmount Primary School is an Islington School and the new site is in Islington.
It is actually a bit further from the boundary then the current site which is about ten meters from Haringey (!)Why do you ask?
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