Breaking News - Hasmonean School extension rejected by the Mayor of London

Today, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London rejected the plans to build an extension to Hasmonean School on 17 acres of Green Belt Land in Mill Hill.

A spokesman for the Mayor said Mr Khan has “ consistently stated that protecting London's green belt is one of his priorities and after carefully considering the evidence before him he decided to refuse permission.”

The Mayor said that “due to its location and excessive footprint the project represented an inappropriate development on Green Belt land, would result in the loss of open space and did not include enough sustainable transport measures. “

The school has been advised to  “bring forward an alternative scheme that makes better use of the land occupied by the existing school”.

Commenting on the announcement Andrew McClusky, Executive Head Teacher of Hasmonean High School, said: “We are disappointed that the Mayor of London has decided to disregard the cross-party decision of members of Barnet’s Planning Committee by overturning the planning consent to re-locate Hasmonean High School on a single site."

The Barnet Eye hopes that this will give suitable opportunity to produce a new scheme which is good for the green belt, the community and the school. Whilst we fully understand and support the need for more school places in the London Borough of Barnet, this must not be at the cost of the destruction of the Green Belt. We hope that we see new proposals that we can fully support. 

Finchley Catholic High School and the ambassador to Israel

There is a  really good story in this weeks Finchley Times. The new ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould visited Finchley Catholic High School and addressed pupils earlier this month. Pupils from St Michael’s Catholic Grammar School, Hasmonean High School and the Jewish Free School were invited to attend. Mr Gould is the first Jewish ambassador to Israel and Mr Gould spoke about how honoured he was to be appointed.

There is often criticism of faith schools, claiming that they are too insular and inward looking. As an ex pupil of Finchley Catholic, I am proud that the school is clearly taking a lead in promoting links with other communities. Inviting pupils from the other schools clearly shows that in Barnet, faith schools are promoting a better inter faith relations in the community. In 2007, pupils from Finchley Catholic High School took a play about the holocaust and performed it at the Auschtwitz. It can only be a good thing for schools to get together to stage these sort of events. The best way to counter Racism, anti-semitism and intolerance is to address these issues with young people at an early age. Schools working together as shown here is a great way of getting people from different traditions together.

I can only commend all of the schools involved for taking part and praise Mr Gould for taking the time to speak to the pupils.