Anger Over Plan To Build Flats By Northolt School
Buildings at St Raphael's Primary to be demolished
St Raphael's Primary School. Picture: Google Street View
Some residents are furious over plans to build flats next to a Northolt primary school which they say will jeopardise children’s safety and learning.
The objectors are outraged at proposals by Diocese of Westminster and Broadway Living to put 92 flats on the site of the former Northolt Grange Community Centre and part of St Raphael’s Catholic School.
School buildings will be knocked down to make way for three blocks ranging from two to five storeys. Some 224 residents objected, adding comments on Ealing Council’s website.
One parent wrote,“My child is a student in St Raphael’s primary school and I feel this new development will impact on our children’s wellbeing and studying. There will be lots of noise, dirt, dust, heavy machinery. How [will] our children learn next to a huge building site?
“It will be very dangerous to our children’s health breathing in the dust and trying to concentrate during classes [with] the noise. Once the flats are built, the windows will be overlooking the playground and the development will take away precious outdoor space.”
Another local wrote, “How can we have children playing on a playground with a high rise residential building nearby. Where is the safety of our children???”
A third parent wrote, “All in all, building a high storey block of flats looking over a school is not good in any way. My little girl attends St Raphael’s primary and I am not happy about this. You just don’t know who could be looking and peering at our innocent little children.”
According to documents submitted to the council, some of the buildings belonging to St Raphael’s were being demolished due to a fall in numbers of children living nearby.
Permission for the demolition was granted by Ealing Council in December 2021 and will start at the end of the current academic year. The council has yet to consider the flats plan.
Broadway Living, the council’s in-house developers, and the Diocese of Westminster have been approached for comment.
Lisa Haseldine - Local Democracy Reporter
March 22, 2022