Queensbridge School former caretaker’s house Pic: Change.org/Dana Nayak

Hundreds of people have signed a petition to save a former caretaker’s house belonging to Queensbridge Primary School that Hackney Council is planning to sell.

The petition, which has so far attracted more than 400 signatures was started by Dana Nayak, a trustee of the Queensbridge Primary School, argues that saving the caretaker’s house for the school would be more beneficial for the community overall, than it being sold.

In the description of the online petition, she wrote: “[T]he short-term gain Hackney would make from the sale of the property does not compare to the long-term, continual benefit that the space can provide to so many Hackney children.

“It would make a huge difference to the quality of the education we are able to provide and make a real difference to the children’s lives.”

‘Child-enriching’ activities

The house was previously lived in by the now-deceased site manager of the school, who lived there for over 40 years.

In the petition, Nayak put forward some suggestions for how the space could be used.

The suggestions included a science lab, an art room, an after-school club, or a little kitchen, as the school doesn’t have kitchen facilities to teach life skills such as cooking.

Locals who signed the petition also seemed to agree, including one whose daughter attends Queensbridge Primary.

She wrote: “[I]t’s an excellent school, and space is tight. This house could provide space for a number of community and child-enriching activities that would benefit the children at Queensbridge and the community.”

Another person who signed wrote: “Schools need spaces like this. It is very important that it remains and is used for the school’s extracurricular activities such as art, music, etc. These are sometimes not given enough importance in a child’s schooling.”

‘Not economically sustainable’

However, Hackney Council told Eastlondonlines that the expense of repurposing the building for educational use, in the face of the amount of savings they would have to make would be more costly than selling it.

Councillor Robert Chapman, Cabinet Member for Finance said: “Every building brings maintenance responsibilities and associated costs. The former caretaker house belongs to the Council, but its current condition does not allow for it to be put to educational use without a large investment of several hundred thousand pounds. That would not be a responsible approach, given that Council has to continue to make very substantial savings over the next three years.

“The Council very rarely makes a decision to dispose of a property, and it does not take it lightly. We have made it a priority to retain the properties we own unless we can find no other viable and economically beneficial use for them. Ever since the constraints of austerity descended upon the public sector, Hackney has taken great care to prioritise the retention of its property assets, finding ways to make them financially sustainable and productive in some use or other. The result of this approach is that Hackney has had to make only a very few disposals since 2010.

“Unfortunately, there are some situations where it is simply not economically sustainable for a local authority to continue to carry the cost of ownership of a property, and this is one of those very few situations.”

However, one signer of the petition said: “[M]oney isn’t always the best reason to sell council property.”