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Caribbean centre school plan faces more scrutiny

Claire Hamilton
BBC Merseyside political reporter
BBC A large group of people stood outside Liverpool Town Hall with placards. The Town Hall is grey brick building with three arches at the entrance.BBC
Protestors gathered outside Liverpool's Town Hall ahead of a council meeting

Plans to build a new girls school on an African Caribbean community centre site will face further scrutiny by councillors after objections.

The proposal for the all-girls Muslim faith school to be built on the site of the African Caribbean Centre in Liverpool off Upper Parliament Street was agreed earlier this week but led to protests.

A group of local councillors from Toxteth and the surrounding area have "called in" the proposals, meaning they will be looked at again by a different council committee.

Liverpool City Council said it was facing a "critical" situation in 2026 over school places, but campaigners said they were "not happy" and local people had not been consulted.

Three women and two men stand outside the door of Liverpool Town Hall holding a sign saying Black Lives Matter and Save Our Caribbean Centre.
Local people say they have not been told or asked about the plans

About 100 people gathered at Liverpool Town Hall earlier this week to protest at the authority's plan to use a plot of land it owns off Upper Parliament Street to provide a new secondary school.

The council said the site had been identified as it met the urgent need for secondary school places in a poorly-served part of Liverpool.

Under the plan, the first intake would see more than 120 pupils given places at Eden Girls' Leadership Academy operated by Star Academies, with the school eventually catering for 600 students.

The Department for Education would provide funding for its construction, with the council obliged to find a suitable site.

The school would be the first Muslim faith-designated school in Liverpool's history and 50% of places would be reserved for Muslim girls.

Google A single storey brown brick building with a metal fence painted red, yellow, blue, green and black. A brown sign with white writing reads Merseyside Caribbean Council Community CentreGoogle
The centre is a well known landmark in Liverpool's Toxteth area

The plans have prompted a backlash from those who use the African Caribbean Centre, with dozens of protestors attending the cabinet meeting earlier this week.

The proposals will now be looked at by members of the Culture and Economy Scrutiny Committee.

Any changes to the plans would need to return to cabinet for approval.

Councillors Lucille Harvey, Steve Munby, Jane Corbett and Nathalie Nicholas issued a statement online, saying the proposal had lacked scrutiny, there was a lack of community consultation and a decision had been made without properly considering the impact on community cohesion.

The group called for an alternative site for the school and for the centre to remain in place.

Earlier this week, council leader Liam Robinson said no formal decision had been made over the site's future.

He said his priority was for the Caribbean centre to stay where it was and for it to share the site with the new school.

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