Kingston narrowly misses out on money for new school (From Surrey Comet)

Kingston narrowly misses out on money for new school

9:40am Monday 20th July 2009 in Search By Mike Didymus

Kingston has missed out on more than £100m of Government money to revamp all the secondary schools in the borough - but look odds on to be picked for the scheme in three months.

The council has been working in partnership with Croydon to make an early bid for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) cash, after it emerged a new secondary school and extensions to several others would be needed by September 2015 to cope with increasing pupil numbers.

A source close to the project said that although Kingston had submitted a very good bid, it needed to “polish up one or two little things” before being accepted for the scheme.

He said: “The bid is very good - it needs a tiny bit of extra work, but hopefully we will be announced as a BSF authority in three months.”

If picked, the council hopes to build a new secondary school and sixth form split between the Hawker Centre and North Kingston Centre, rebuild Southborough School and Tolworth Girls’ School on one site, and remodel Coombe Boys’ and the Hollyfield School by 2013.

The borough’s two referral units will also be relocated on one site, while Kingston’s six remaining secondary schools and three special schools will be remodelled by 2016.

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