Consultation for Johanna Development
Consultation: Johanna Site Redevelopment
Since 2016/17, when Lambeth Council approached Oasis about locating the community library on the Oasis Academy Johanna site, we have been working together as partners to look at the school and community needs for our site. At the same time as Lambeth’s approach about the library, we were becoming aware that the school buildings were approaching the end of their lifespan and in need of substantial investment to ensure that Oasis would be able to continue to deliver the high quality of education for children in Waterloo in the future.
In the intervening years, we have been developing ideas around making the school a fit-for-purpose environment, as well as a larger space to accommodate an integrated SEND Resource Base to cater for more children with particular physical and associated moderate learning difficulties. We believe that our children deserve the best so that they can flourish in every way.
As part of our developing work, we wanted to provide more opportunities for the local community, including jobs, skills and training such as a community training restaurant. The scheme also will allow for a community square where people can enjoy good-quality external space.
We believe that these facilities will add to our community and serve residents and groups in the decades to come. We want to build on the work Oasis has been doing in Waterloo for the last 20 years by creating more facilities for our partners and community groups.
We have determined the best way of delivering this scheme is by procuring a developer through a fair and rigorous process, who can bring their resources and expertise to take the project through the design, planning and construction phases and make sure this vision becomes a reality for the Waterloo community. The results of this consultation will help us to shape the way we select the best partner to deliver our vision. Neither Oasis nor Lambeth have access to funding to be able to deliver a new school and the other community uses, and so it is necessary to include some ‘enabling development’ to ensure the scheme can be delivered at no net cost to the community or the taxpayer. Although our first vision for the site included both new offices and new homes, including social housing, as part of the enabling development, subsequent work indicates that an office-led development presents the best opportunity of a scheme which is viable whilst also delivering the school and other new community facilities.
Following our community consultation at the end of last year, we promised to gather together all the responses received from the local community and key stakeholders and publish them. Please find this information in the attached report. If you have any questions then do please contact us at info@oasisjohanna.org
The next stage of development will be to go out to market to find a suitable development partner whose job it will be to realise our vision. We will update you when we have more news on this exciting scheme.