Grenfell campaigners fight to save further education college

Grenfell campaigners met ministers in an attempt to save a further education college for the community as part of a drive to secure local assets as “reparations” for the tragedy.

Kensington and Chelsea College, a popular but financially struggling adult education college at which many Grenfell residents studied, is poised to merge with a further education college based in another London borough next month.

Campaigners fear the tie-up could eventually see the North Kensington premises of the college close, with courses transferred elsewhere in London. Plans drawn up by the council last year proposed demolishing the block, to replace it with a smaller college and flats.

Six campaigners said a meeting with Anne Milton, the minister for apprenticeships and skills, and Nick Hurd, the fire service minister responsible for Grenfell victims, had gone well, with Milton agreeing to look for alternatives to the merger with Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, which is to be signed off on 11 December.

The college building on Wornington Road was sold to the Conservative-run council last year for £25m, without consultation with staff. After the fire, redevelopment plans for the college have become increasingly controversial.

Campaigners say a council-led drive to regenerate North Kensington, the poorest part of the borough, was behind the neglect of Grenfell residents and planned closures of community assets.

After the campaigners’ meeting, a Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) spokesperson appeared to offer a compromise, suggesting they could temporarily lease the building back to the college, but local residents remained sceptical.

The spokesperson said: “We are delighted to announce that we have provisionally agreed that Kensington and Chelsea College (KCC) will remain on the Wornington Road campus and we are prepared to enter into negotiations to agree a 10-year lease on the building.

“This is an exciting opportunity which enables the college to realise its ambitions and provide a package of vocational courses tailored for the needs of North Kensington.”

However, campaigners said they would not be satisfied with an interim agreement, and wanted a commitment that the college would be saved for the long-term.

Edward Daffarn, the Grenfell survivor who documented management failures and safety concerns with the tower in the years before the fire, and who studied at the college, said he would push for a clear promise to preserve the college in its current location for future generations.

“We are seeking to halt the merger with Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College and secure the long-term future of the college. Ten years will go in the blink of an eye and we do not trust RBKC to honour their commitments,” he said.

“We are looking to find a way of keeping the Wornington campus and the future of KCC secure for future generations.”