Success – Council Recommend our Bid for School Building

Our bid to buy the former Hawthorn Junior School in Llandaff North has been successful. Cardiff council officers have recommended to their Executive that they accept our proposal on the building subject to confirmation of our funding.

Executive member for finance and service delivery Councillor Mark Stephens said:

“The council has had to carefully consider balancing the need to obtain the best possible return for this site with the local community’s desire to see the buildings retained. This option would still deliver a reasonable capital receipt which would be invested back into schools in the city while the Steiner School have also confirmed they are prepared to discuss wider use of the building with the local community.”

Campaigners, who have been fighting to save the building since it shut two years ago, welcomed the news. Residents Association Chairwoman and campaign leader Stephanie Wilkins said:

“If we had not campaigned so hard, I’ve no doubt the school would have been demolished for housing by now. But residents felt very strongly about the school’s importance to the area architecturally, socially and historically, and fought hard to save it.”

We are delighted that council officers are recommending that our bid be accepted. We are now in negotiations with the council and plan to open Cardiff’s first Steiner School in September 2012. We look forward to being able to offer a first-class holistic education to children in Cardiff. If our negotiations are successful, then we would embrace working closely with the community who have fought so hard to save this wonderful Victorian building.