🚨 PLEASE HELP PROTECT THE SAFETY AND LIVEABILITY OF OUR ISLAND COMMUNITY 🚨

Many of you supported our original campaign to protect Canary Wharf College and our local community. Thanks to the incredible support from parents and residents, the previous planning application to change the school’s operating hours was unanimously refused by Tower Hamlets Council.

Unfortunately, UST has now submitted a new planning application seeking exactly the same outcome.

What is particularly concerning is that this application has been submitted during the summer holidays, when many families are away and understandably less likely to be monitoring planning applications. We cannot allow such an important decision to pass without the community having the opportunity to be heard.

This is not simply about changing the operating times and term dates of three schools. These arrangements are a key part of the safeguarding framework that allows schools to operate safely within a densely populated neighbourhood, by managing the movement of thousands of pupils, families and residents across shared roads, pavements and transport networks.

The proposed changes affect all three Canary Wharf College schools, including both school operating times and term dates. These are not just administrative details — they directly influence how safely pupils travel to and from school, how pressure on local infrastructure is managed, and how schools coexist with the wider Isle of Dogs community.

The original planning conditions were introduced for a reason: to stagger pupil arrival and departure times and reduce pressure on surrounding roads, pavements, crossings and public transport. Most importantly, staggered release times are a safeguarding measure. The Isle of Dogs has a high concentration of schools within a very small area, with primary and secondary pupils travelling through the same streets, crossings, transport links and public spaces.

Releasing large numbers of pupils from multiple schools at the same time removes an important buffer that currently helps schools, families and the wider community manage pupil movement safely. Staggered dismissal also helps reduce the potential for inter-school tensions, antisocial behaviour and conflict between groups of pupils from different schools by avoiding large numbers of young people converging in the same locations at the same time. These safeguards exist for a reason and should not be removed without clear evidence that the risks have been properly assessed and mitigated.

This affects everyone who lives, works or travels on the Isle of Dogs—not just CWC families.

The Planning Committee has already rejected these arguments once. However, the application is now being submitted again, and we need our community to speak up once more.

Our goal is to secure at least 100 objections. Every comment matters.

👉 Planning application:
https://development.towerhamlets.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=DCAPR_150924&activeTab=summary

To submit a comment you will need to create a free account on the Council’s planning portal. It only takes a couple of minutes.

Please select “Object” and submit your comments. Even a short objection can make a difference.

You are welcome to copy and paste the following:

I object to planning application PA/26/01051/NC. This proposal would remove an important planning safeguard created to protect child safety, highway safety and residential amenity through staggered school operating times. The application does not adequately assess the safeguarding risks of releasing pupils from multiple schools at the same time, including increased congestion, road safety risks, overcrowding and the potential for inter-school conflict and antisocial behaviour. The previous application was refused and no sufficient new evidence has been provided to justify removing these protections. I respectfully request that this application is refused.

Please also share this post with neighbours, friends and local community groups. You do not have to be a parent to object. Anyone who may be affected by increased congestion, transport pressures or safety impacts has the right to comment.

Together, we showed that our community’s voice matters. Let’s make sure it is heard again.