Privatisation - Portrait of a borough
WORKERS, OCT 2006 ISSUE
NORTH LONDON borough Enfield is reeling under the effects of privatisation.
Its leisure facilities are in doubt, including a complex that has only been open for a couple of years. Enfield Leisure Services Ltd was set up in 1999 to take over services previously run by the council. Now the shareholders, which include many of the staff, are expected to vote for its voluntary liquidation. Public swimming pools were first opened in the borough in 1903 and were an immediate success, aiding public health and hygiene and teaching children how to swim.
Meanwhile, building work on the new Oasis Academy in Enfield has been suspended while a review is carried out of spiralling costs. Steve Chalke, Baptist minister and founder of the Oasis Trust which is providing just £2 million of the £21 million required and which will be running the school when it's built, admitted that costs had increased by several million pounds. When the school opened this September most of the Year 7 pupils were studying in temporary classrooms. Chalke said project costs could be brought back into line if cheaper materials were used.
And according to local newspaper reports an Enfield secondary head has resigned over the effects of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) on her school. Monica Cross said that Highlands, opened in 2000 as the first English secondary school built under PFI, lacked basic facilities despite the government pumping millions of pounds into it. The school was built by Equion for more than £16 million, repayable by Enfield Council over 25 years. Equion is also running the building and providing equipment.
Cross added that the sports facilities were the worst in the borough, that the food technology room could not be used for the first year because the cookers were so poor and that there was a shortage of computers. And she felt Equion charged extortionate costs such as a quote for a new staff room which was twice that put in by local builders.