Dear Parents and Friends,
sorry for the lack of communication over the past few months. The
situation has been very unclear with conflicting information about when Islamia school is vacating the building. However we've now been told that Islamia will definitely be moving out in July 2013 and
therefore understand that Brent are not planning to renew the Hopscotch lease. The situation is now urgent. Unless Hopscotch can secure its future in the next few months it will be impossible to
continue beyond July 2013.
Since Brent council's argument is that the building will be
under-utilised once Islamia move out and therefore ‘subjected to disposal’ (ie: put for sale), our plan is to put together a proposal
to take over the whole building. We are already talking to potential partners but if you know of
anyone who could partner with Hopscotch to use the upper floors of the building please get in touch.
In the meantime, we need to keep the pressure up on the council to
accept such a proposal and/or give Hopscotch more time to find alternative premises. Our petition gained over 800 signatures and has
been presented to the council - but we need to keep on reminding them
how valuable Hopscotch is and gather as much support as possible.
Please contact your
local councillors and MP, find out where they stand on the issue (some are already very supportive such as the Brondesbury Ward coucillors, others less so). Let them know how important Hopscotch is and urge them to do
everything they can to save it.
As well as writing to your own councillors, the following are the key members of the Brent Executive:
Cllr George Crane
is in charge of Regeneration so we think he's ultimately the one who
will decide what happens. But the future of Hopscotch is about much more
than property and the council need to understand that.
Cllr Mary Arnold
represents Kilburn ward and is also in charge of Children and Family
policy for Brent, so she'll have a significant influence on the
decision.
Please email / write / phone / visit (all councillors have surgeries where you can put your case in person) so they know how many people care about Hopscotch.
Their emails are:
cllr.george.crane@brent.gov.uk
cllr.mary.arnold@brent.gov.uk
The local MPs are:
Glenda Jackson: http://www.glenda-jackson.co.uk/
jacksong@parliament.uk
and Sarah Teather: http://brentlibdems.org.uk/en/
teathers@parliament.uk
If you're in Sarah Teather's constituency please do get in touch as we're keen to get her
involved and there are fewer parents in her constituency.
We need to get press coverage of the situation so if you have
any
media contacts please sound them out and/or let us know. Of course,
any celebrity involvement always gets the press interested so if
anyone knows
any of the famous parents in the area please respectfully see if they could
lend
any support to this much loved nursery.
If
anyone is
involved in
any of the
local political parties please do get in touch, as it would be good to find out where local members stand on the issue.
The other option for Hopscotch is to move so if you know of anywhere
in the
local area that could be suitable and might be available then let us know.
Thank you for your support,
Save Hopscotch Campaign
info@savehopscotch.org.uk