A Listening Council

Last night the members of the Executive of Camden Council made a wise decision - they showed they could listen and changed their minds. The issue was Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children, which has to move from the site of the new secondary school in Swiss Cottage. A few weeks ago the Executive announced a "preferred option" - to transfer the pupils of Frank Barnes to Blanche Nevile in Haringey, another deaf school.

At the time they almost certainly genuinely believed that this was likely to be the best option for Frank Barnes. However since then a number of people, myself included, have argued that it was wrong to declare a preferred option without doing a proper feasibility study, and that there may actually be other options - like integration with Primrose Hill School - which would work better. Furthermore, since a working group of the Children, Schools and Families Scrutiny Panel had been formed to look at all options and report back in February, we argued that they should be allowed to carry out their work without the Sword of Damocles of a preferred option hanging over their heads.

To their credit the Executive listened and withdrew the preferred option pending further feasibility studies. There's no shame in that. I for one feel much happier this morning that I am a foot soldier in an administration that is really able to listen. After all, as John Maynard Keynes famously said: "When the facts change, I change my mind - what do you do?"