Mr. KINGasked the President of the Board of Education whether he has inquired into the causes for the admitted deficiency of elementary school accommodation in North Paddington, especially in the Harrow Road and Bloomfield Street district; whether there has been ever since 1904 in this district a large deficiency of school accommodation; whether he attributes the failure to provide adequate school accommodation to the action of the Paddington Borough Council, which has opposed proposals put forward by the local education authority; and what steps he proposes to take in this matter?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of EDUCATION (Mr. Trevelyan)The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The problem of school accommodation in this area is very complicated and has repeatedly engaged the attention of the Board. The former deficiency of school places was, to some extent, remedied in 1910, and the deficiency which at present exists is largely due to new causes connected in part with the operation of Article 14 of the current Code. Proposals for remedying the present deficiency have recently been under consideration. A review of the several attempts of the Local Education Authority to obtain sites in this area does not support the suggestion that the failure to solve the problem is attributable to the action of the borough council.