§ MR. STANLEY LEIGHTONasked the Vice President of the Council, Whether his Department has consented to the erection of a School to contain 1,200 children, for which a site has been purchased, and which is now being cleared of houses to provide additional School accommodation for Blocks E. F. H. I. J. K. Lambeth, where the School Board authorities report that there are now 1,876 vacant places, and whore the South Western Railway Company is on the point of pulling down houses in which it is estimated that 500 children reside; where the houses in the neighbourhood are already unhealthily crowded; and where there is no unoccupied land on which additional houses can be built?
§ MR. MUNDELLASir, the Department in 1881 consented to the provision of a school for 1,200 children in Upper Kennington Lane to meet an admitted deficiency in three out of the six blocks mentioned. A site for the schools has been purchased, and the houses upon it are being cleared. The clearance by the South Western Railway will only affect a part of this district. It runs through blocks E, F, H, and does not touch I, J. and K. This school is to provide for H, I, and K. The School Board reports that the number of children living within the limits of deviation is 390. The plans of the proposed schools have not yet been approved by the Department, and it will have to be considered to what extent, if any, the size of the school should be diminished by the decrease of population. I have consented to receive a deputation of the managers of the voluntary schools upon the subject. The number of vacant places referred to in the question means the difference betwixt the average attendance and the accommodation; but the actual attend- 1273 ance is often considerably above the average.