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Lambeth is considering a legal challenge
after the Tory-Lib Dem Government announced plans to destroy the
borough’s school-building programme. Lambeth’s schools have
improved beyond all measure in recent years. Last year alone, GCSE
results improved by 9% taking Lambeth above the national average
for the first time ever. Our schools perform better than
neighbouring boroughs. And to address the shortage of places, our
Labour council working with the previous Labour government opened
two new schools, is planning a third, and had a major rebuilding
programme underway to refurbish schools still operating in
substandard conditions.
It was a bold programme of investment in
Lambeth’s young people, and they were responding by working hard
and securing better qualifications than ever before. But now the
Tory-Lib Dem Government has stepped in and scrapped the entire
scheme. Every single one of Lambeth’s eleven remaining school
projects has been scrapped or put under review. This is devastating
news for Lambeth’s parents and schoolchildren who stand to miss out
on the quality educational facilities they need and
deserve.
Rebuilding plans the Tories and Lib Dems have
scrapped include Bishop Thomas Grant Roman Catholic School, St
Martin in the Fields girls school, La Retraite girls Roman Catholic
school, and Archbishop Tenison school in Kennington. Rebuilds that
have been put on hold just days before final contracts were due to
be signed include Streatham’s Dunraven School, Norwood School, and
the planned new secondary school on the Fenstanton School site. If
the Government goes ahead with these devastating decisions then
Lambeth will be unable to provide secondary school places for every
child while other children will be condemned to have lessons in
portakabins stacked on top of each other outside a crumbling
Victorian school building.
How many Lib Dem voters in Lambeth, I wonder,
lent their support to that party just to see their vote used to
prop up Tory plans to decimate our schools? What a
betrayal.
There are real concerns that the Tory-Lib Dem
Government have not been consistent in taking decisions about which
schools to cut. Lambeth is working with other hard-hit councils to
explore whether there is legal action we can take over this. In
addition, Lambeth’s schools have already spent £6m in putting
together the rebuilding plans the Government has now trashed, and
there may be a case for suing the Government to recover the lost
money. We’ll know more when we hear the legal opinions.
In the meantime, Labour will be backing every
school in Lambeth that’s seen their dreams smashed by the Tories
and Lib Dems. It makes no sense to make short-sighted cuts that
damage our young people’s futures. Giving our children a good
education is the best investment we can make as a society. After
we’ve come so far together we must not let the Tories and their Lib
Dem nodding-dogs take us back to the failure of the
past.
Lib Dems have backed Tory plans to
destroy children's hopes for new and better
schools
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