Dear Editor,

Your article“Site secured for new secondary school which will offer 1,400 new pupil places” states that these schools will open in 2017. This is surprising to us as a planning application is yet to be submitted, local residents and the Lee Valley Park Authority have yet to be consulted, and the site is Metropolitan Open Land with the highest level of protection from development. Perhaps the developers are optimistic because the Department of Education, in ‘securing’ the site with taxpayers money, have effectively placed massive pressure on Waltham Forest Council to consent the development. This may help the government to meet its target for opening new free schools but does not help the council to supply school places where they are needed, blatantly ignores land protections, and rides roughshod over local residents’ planning rights.

Yours sincerely

Alice Roberts

Green Spaces Officer

CPRE London