A Clapham ballet director whose £4.5million ‘expansion plans were rejected by Lambeth Council last month has condemned Lambeth Council’s ‘set-up job.’
The London Russian Ballet School (LRBS) director, Harriet Pickering, had planned to build a 2,000sq ft basement which she insists would have provided world-class facilities for her dancers.
Instead, plans for the Grade Two-listed building were stopped in their tracks and Ms Pickering claims the planning committee didn’t adequately consider the school’s outreach programme Kids Love Lambeth.
“We would have done better in Soviet Russia, the only difference was that they did not ship us off to Siberia.
“The council had their own agenda, it was a stitch up.
“Five years in consultation with the council, four traffic surveys, three noise reports.
“Our traffic expert was there, we said did they want to speak to him and they said no.”
Fees for the school are £5,750 a term, but they run an extensive bursary programme which allows students from poorer areas to study with former Etonians and university professors while learning ballet under ex-Bolshoi premier Evgeny Goremykin.
Ms Pickering estimates about 60% of her students are subsidised and proudly describes Fred Powell, an outreach pupil who, having arrived at the ballet school at 17, won a place in a dance company, gained two A*s and a B in his A levels and now attends UCL.
“Our vocational students, people who are studying more or less full time, often from troubled backgrounds, are a great example even if you don’t do ballet.”
On top of high-level dance tuition, LRBS works with schools in the community and Mauline Brown, whose children attended Clapham Manor Primary School, praised its impact on children in the area.
“My children attended for a combined three years between them and it was wonderful that they had the experience they did.
“As a result, many boys (as well as girls) became interested in ballet.
“It was a joy to see such enthusiasm in them, especially toward an interest that had often been considered an art of female expression.”
However according to Ms Pickering this figured lightly in the committee meeting, and the council instead chose to focus upon noise and traffic.
“They said in order to do the work here we would have to have three large lorries, two or three times a day for over a year.
“We would need two small trucks twice a day and that would last for up to four months.
“If they had decided then what is the point in having the committee? I think it was really very choreographed, they had all decided before that was all they were going to talk about was traffic.”
A Lambeth Council spokesman insisted everything was taken into account.
He said: “The proposed development for expansion of the ballet school included significant extensions above and below ground which the committee felt would harm the grade II-listed building and the Rectory Grove conservation area.
“They considered the level of public benefit from the scheme but concluded that this was not sufficient to outweigh that harm.”
Image courtesy of Google Maps, with thanks
