Furious civic centre row erupts over claim that previous Labour administration’s inertia is set to cost taxpayers over £1million, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter
Enfield Council’s leader has slammed the “callous disregard” of his Labour predecessors – claiming parents and staff were kept “in the dark” over looming school closures.
Conservative council leader Alessandro Georgiou made the scathing comments at a cabinet meeting yesterday (Wednesday 14th), when it was decided to open a public consultation on the future of three council-maintained schools.
Bishop Stopford’s School in Carterhatch ward, the adjacent Suffolks Primary School, as well as Starks Field Primary School in Edmonton, are all predicted to be operating at less than 50% capacity within three years.
The funding awarded to local authorities for running schools is based on pupil numbers and, therefore, “the financial impact of having schools that do not operate at – or even close to – capacity, is stark,” Cllr Georgiou warned.
Following last night’s decision by the Tory administration, a public consultation will now be launched on the potential closure of all three schools.
The civic centre “wishes to seek the widest possible range of views” about the future of the three schools through this process, including ideas on “potential alternatives to closure”.
Cllr Georgiou leads the council’s Conservative minority administration, which came to power following the local election in May, ending 16 years of Labour control in Enfield.
Speaking yesterday, Cllr Georgiou claimed the issue of rapidly falling pupil numbers at the three schools was known for years, but that the former Labour administration avoided making decisions to tackle the issue.
The Tory leader claimed his Labour predecessors Nesil Caliskan and Ergin Erbil had known but “chose to keep parents and staff in the dark” alongside Abdul Abdullahi, the previous cabinet member for children’s services.
In a combative speech, the Conservative leader also said he’d been struck by the “callous disregard” for parents, staff and pupils displayed by Enfield Labour through their failure to act.
“At every turn the previous administration opted to put politics and their own self-interest above those of the people they should have been serving,” Cllr Georgiou argued.
The Tory leader said that, “with one eye” on May’s elections, Labour had “decided to expose the council to an ever-increasing financial pressure lest they make a tough decision that affected their support”.
“I could not have come up with a scenario so negligent if I tried,” Cllr Georgiou said, before adding: “Anyone who plays with the lives of our children will have me as an enemy for life.”
He also said the estimated financial impact of the delay to the school closures decision was likely to reach £1.2million.
A cabinet report further stated that a total of 14 council-maintained schools across Enfield had reported a revenue deficit at the end of the 2025/26 financial year, totalling £6.7m.
“This position is expected to increase further because of the ongoing impact of declining pupil numbers and other financial pressures,” the report explained, adding that the combined annual deficit of the three schools now proposed for closure was £1.68m.
Cllr Georgiou urged concerned parents, staff and residents to engage with the public consultation when it launches in the near future. He also promised that final decisions will be made only after the consultation process has been completed and the responses received can be formally considered by members.
In a response today (Thursday 15th) to the accusations made by Cllr Georgiou about the Labour administration, which Cllr Erbil led between September 2024 and May 2026, the now opposition leader described the claims as “misleading”.
“I strongly reject the suggestion that the previous Labour administration delayed decisions for electoral reasons,” said Cllr Erbil.
“During my time as council leader, [the issue with] Bishop Stopford’s was raised with me. We made our position clear that we would do everything possible to prevent its closure.
“It is also important to recognise that Bishop Stopford’s is a Church of England school, which brings additional considerations.
“This was never simply a case of deciding to close a school to save money. Any decision about its future could not be made on financial grounds alone.
“Suffolks Primary School and Starks Field Primary School were never raised with me during my time as leader. I was not presented with proposals to consult on their potential closure, and I was not asked to make decisions about their future.
“Cllr Abdullahi was presented with options to turn Suffolks and Starks Field into specialist provision schools for children with special educational needs.
“Cllr Abdullahi made clear that our preference was to explore the potential for these schools to become specialist provision for children with special educational needs. Closing schools was not the approach we were pursuing.”
Cllr Erbil did not directly respond to a question from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on whether he supported the decision passed by the council’s cabinet, but did say the Conservative administration “must take responsibility for its own decisions rather than continually seeking to blame its predecessors”.
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