Cossall Park victory

The council has recently decided to relocate Tuke Special School from Woods Road to a brand new building in Daniel Gardens in north Peckham (fuller details of the plans here). The move won't happen till 2010, but nearby residents have been asking me about what will happen to the old school site, in particular the area which used to be part of Cossall Park until sometime in the 1990s when the school was allowed to annex part of the park to give them more play space.

After various equivocal answers from various council officers in childrens services, property and planning I was delighted to get an answer from the Leader of the Council confirming that the land that was originally part of the park will be restored to the park (though he didn't pledge the money we'd need to make it good). I've got a map from the parks department and we'll be holding them to this!

Unsurprisingly they expect to build flats on the rest of the site. Given the housing shortage and high numbers of overcrowded families in the area I think that's probably the best option particularly if we can get some larger 3 or 4 bed flats on the lower floors.