| Ashburton Learning Village | |
| Cost: | £18.4 Million[1] |
| Client: | Norwest Holst / Croydon Council |
| Location Town: | Woodside, Croydon, Greater London |
| Location Country: | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates: | 51.3829°N -0.0629°W |
| Start Date: | June 2004 |
| Completion Date: | 2006 |
| Architect: | Penoyre & Prasad / Noam Raz |
Ashburton Learning Village is a learning complex in Woodside, Greater London. It stands in the London Borough of Croydon, and is located near Ashburton Park. The village includes Ashburton Library, Oasis Academy Shirley Park, Croydon Music Service and a CALAT training centre. The complex was built after the old Ashburton Library was closed down.
The £20 million secondary school, library and community facilities is the borough's first education Private Finance Initiative (PFI) development.
Former energy minister Malcolm Wicks praised the new development in Croydon, for its ‘innovative design’ and ‘energy-efficient features’.
The then MP for Croydon North said:
As well as Croydon Music Service and CETS having access to these amenities, the entire community will benefit as they are available for use after school hours, at weekends and during school holidays. In particular, members of the public can use the gym areas and changing rooms daily.
School safety was also high on the design brief and all areas have been made secure with the use of card keys. Everyone entering the building must do so through the main reception. Locked areas are automatically deactivated if the fire alarm should go off.
In March, the former Secretary of State for Education Ruth Kelly MP visited the learning village, and marked the end of the construction period with a foundation stone taken from the original school, which opened in 1950.
She said
Work on Ashburton Learning Village, Shirley Road, Croydon, started in June 2004 but plans to redevelop the school had been in the pipeline since 2001, when Croydon Council secured government backing from the then Department for Education and Employment through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).
Additional PFI credits were granted by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Trade and Industry, enabling Ashburton Library to move from its current home in Ashburton Park and allowing the more ambitious plans to create a learning village for the whole community to be developed.
As part of the project, 100 new homes will be built on the surplus land. Once the school has moved into its new accommodation, the old buildings will be demolished. A special needs learning hub and community space will be opened at the old Ashburton library site in the summer of 2017.
Under the PFI agreement, Jarvis plc is responsible for the maintenance of the building for the next 30 years.
Ashburton Community School was replaced by Oasis Academy: Shirley Park in 2009.
See main article: Oasis Academy Shirley Park. Oasis Academy Shirley Park (formerly Ashburton Community School) is an academic school located in the centre of the learning village.
Ashburton Library is a public library located in the learning village. It is owned by Croydon Council and is part of the Croydon Libraries arm of the council. The library, unlike many other Croydon Libraries, is based on only one floor. Croydon has said that it would like to redo all of its libraries so they could all be accessible by users who are disabled. The library moved in when it finished building in March, 2006.
Like all Croydon libraries it includes free access to PCs which includes the internet. Books, CDs, DVDs, videos for reference and loan.