- Christmas finish hope for Crane Park
- Keeping Full of Life in Richmond upon Thames
- Celebrations at Silver Gilt Bloom award
- Athletes sought to bring home gold in 2012
- Woodville Centre in Ham opens its doors
- Clamping down on school absence
- New affordable housing in Richmond
- future of cows on Petersham Meadow
- A race too far at East Sheen Library
- Housing options success
- Craft Fair goes to East Sheen
- Celebrating Carers
- Last chance to sky ride around Richmond
- Adventurers raise £1,000 for charity despite wind and rain
- Taking art around the Borough
- Art in motion at Twickenham gallery
- Council keeps the chill away with grants promise
- Don’t lose your right to vote
- Helping volunteers and social enterprises find funding
- Proposed new parliamentary boundaries
- Borough’s delight at London in Bloom results
- Week of Peace celebration
- Purge on yellow lines launched by Council
- Thames Tunnel to pay Council for advice
- Council keeps the chill away with grants promise
- Improving access to Barnes station 1
- Commissioning of Adult Social Care
- Council votes to repay £1m in wrongly issued penalty notices
- Go behind the scenes of our best buildings
- Richmond live and online
- More Beatz at Ham
- Pupils return to healthier school meals
- Hopes high for London in Bloom win
- Council tops 1,000 twitter followers
- State-of-the-art school building shortlisted for national award
- All borough pupils get schools places
- Housing Options Fair 2011
- Learn about IT with a cuppa and a biscuit
- Council meeting broadcast
- call to join crime fighting group
- £1.5m Richmond Station forecourt improvements agreed
- Sports fans to celebrate pavilion launches
- Contracts exchanged for new Twickenham school
- Celebrating achievements of young people in care
- Mayor says 'all aboard' for Great River Race
- Apply now for permanent RichmondCard
Release Date: 05/09/2011
Contracts exchanged for new Twickenham school
A new secondary school in Twickenham has come a significant step closer to reality after Richmond Council exchanged contracts with Richmond Adult Community College this week to buy its Clifden Road site.
Following approval to move ahead with a sale by the Council’s Cabinet in July, exchanging contracts on the Clifden Road site signals a formal commitment between the two organisations to complete the sale, which is expected by July 2012 at the latest.
It could pave the way for the Council to deliver on the commitment to support the Catholic community’s desire to set up a Catholic secondary school for Richmond upon Thames. The authority is now talking to the Diocese of Westminster about its plans for such provision.
Lord True, Leader of Richmond Council said: “I am pleased RACC and the Council have reached this significant milestone together so quickly, it is important we keep momentum on this long overdue expansion of our borough’s schools network.
“Exchanging contracts sets the Borough’s superb adult college on a strong basis to develop for the future in Richmond and at the same time provides a major step forward for education in Twickenham, at both primary and secondary level.
“There are arguments being put on both sides of the issue. But I hope that this will not be made the occasion for division. There is talk of inclusiveness. Real inclusiveness involves embracing provision for all local taxpayers, including Catholics, within our family of local schools. Whether the school is Catholic or not it will help to address the need for more places in our borough for all and there is a growing need for more school places in the Twickenham area.
“This administration is acting swiftly and decisively to address that need, and the purchase of this site provides a potential path upon which to deliver on the hopes cherished by so many local people of providing a Catholic secondary school for hundreds of our local children in our superb Catholic borough primaries.
The exchange of contracts now means a formal arrangement with timescales has been entered into between the Council and RACC.
We are now getting on with creating more detailed plans and carrying out feasibility surveys on the site. The main Edwardian former school building is in relatively good condition and is unlikely to require significant changes. Some smaller buildings on the site may need to be replaced to ensure good quality buildings to teach in.
Final completion of the sale is still subject to a number of conditions.
View the full press release
Bookmark this press release
What are these?