Plans move ahead to keep pupil referral unit at former Seven Kings Lorry Park

The cabinet member for children’s services signed off on a proposal to permanently site a pupil referral unit at the former Seven Kings Lorry Park.

At last night’s cabinet meeting in Redbridge Town Hall, High Road, Ilford, members were told Cllr Alan Weinberg had agreed to keep the John Barker Centre, the borough’s key stage 3 unit for pupils excluded from mainstream schools, at the site in High Road.

The centre temporarily relocated from the Cricklefields site in High Road, Ilford, in 2011 to allow for the development of the Isaac Newton Academy.

A council report said: “Despite a number of searches, no permanent site has been identified as being suitable.”

The lorry park, which ceased to operate in 1990, sits next to a car park and had been identified as a development site.

The report said the redevelopment potential of the car park without the lorry park is “significantly reduced”.

Seven Kings Cllr Bob Littlewood said: “The site as a whole is much more valuable than the sum of its two parts. This is a disaster for Seven Kings.”