Today saw the topping-out ceremony at the new Evelyn Grace Academy building in central Brixton.  I was honoured to be invited to speak at the ceremony held to mark the completion of the main structure of the new school building in Shakespeare Road. 

The Evelyn Grace Academy – which will be the only secondary school in Brixton – is an example of a major new project that only happened because we had both a Labour Government and a Labour Council, and it is a powerful example of why we need to keep both if we are to keep addressing the problems facing people in our cities. 

The Labour Government made funding available for new schools through the new academies programme.  Academies are independent schools funded by the state.  They allow for innovation and creativity, which is the way we find new and better way to do things including vital public services like education.  Funding on this scale was never available under the previous Tory government.  It took a Labour Government to recognise the need and find the money. 

But when the council was run by a coalition of Tories and Lib Dems, they refused to work with the Government to find a site for the school to be built on.  Instead of taking a decision, they dithered.  They were paralysed by the fear that whatever decision they took some people would be against it.  So they chose to do nothing calculating that would be to their political advantage and that parents unable to find a school place would blame the Government, not them.  It was only when local people elected a Labour council in 2006 that we were able to take the decision to relocate the rubbish trucks from the old Shakespeare Road depot and, at considerable cost, make the site available for a new secondary school.  While the Tories and Lib Dems dithered, 500 children on schools allocation day were told they had no secondary school place to go to.  It took a Labour council to take the decisions necessary to sort out the problem.

So it was with a strange mixture of pride and humility that I walked along Moorland Road to see just how impressive the new building is starting to look.  The Evelyn Grace Academy already exists in temporary buildings near their future permanent home.  The Head Teacher and sponsors, Ark, were on hand to join me in the topping out ceremony during which we marked the milestone by planting a tree. 

Sometimes people ask me whether it’s worth bothering to vote.  It’s when you see election pledges become reality that you know it’s all so worthwhile.  We’re not just building a school, we’re building a better future for a whole generation of local children.  What could be more worthwhile than that? 

Evelyn Grace Academy - Brixton's new and only secondary school - as it is now (top right) and as it will be when it's completed in summer 2010 (above).