Zac Goldsmith's reply to my letter

I have had a prompt reply from Zac Goldsmith. Sadly, it does little to alleviate my concerns, nor to address many of the issues I raised.

In fairness, I will print the full letter - and then my reply in a second post.

Dear Mr Morris,
I wrote to the Council’s Education Department in July, and have copied the response I received from Robert Henderson in the Protective and Preventative Services. I was also sent the attached timeline on the proposals, which includes mention of the possible changes at Russell School.
It is important to point out that no decision has been made to sell the land at Strathmore School to developers.  The attached timeline shows that there are a number of decision making milestones before any decisions can be made, including statutory consultation, a Cabinet decision and planning application process. At each of these stages, if it is decided that the Strathmore site will not be developed, it will remain the borough education provision for children with severe learning difficulties, and will not be sold to developers.
The timeline of the application can be found at the following link: http://www.richmond.gov.uk/strathmore_russell_indicative_timeline_july_12.pdf,  and the details of the proposals and how the consultation has been carried out so far at this link:http://www.richmond.gov.uk/sen_consultation
If you’d like me to relay your comments to Mr Henderson for a direct response, I will very gladly do so. Please let me know.
Yours sincerely,
Zac Goldsmith

------ Forwarded Message
From: Robert Henderson
Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2012 12:53:04 +0100
Cc: Cllr Paul Hodgins <cllr.phodgins@richmond.gov.uk>
Subject: Re: Redevelopment of Russell School and Strathmore sites

I am responding to the concern raised in relation to Strathmore School and the current consultation.
I can confirm that the consultation process and documentation has gone out to all Special Schools, appropriate parent groups and forums and we have sent out paper copies where requested.
We have responded to any enquiries from individual residents.
The consultation document was developed with the community engagement team to ensure that it was an open, transparent document. Clearly the ambition is to improve Special School provision in the borough and the consultation proposal outlines how we hope to achieve this
Clearly we have had to balance the specialist nature of this consultation with ensuring that those interested parties have been made aware of the proposals and can comment on it, as we genuinely want as much engagement as possible.
Regards,
Robert
Robert Henderson
Assistant Director, Protective & Preventative Services
T: 020 8891 7562
E: r.henderson@richmond.gov.uk