As your Member of Parliament I will fight hard to improve our local schools and colleges.
I am pleased that I have been able to secure millions of pounds of funds for our primary schools. I am also delighted that we are pushing ahead with the rebuilding of two city academies. As a local councillor I helped secure £35m for these schools – money that Southampton Labour Councillors and MPs would have turned down.
We have 5 new secondary school building projects in the pipeline. The only thing holding back approval for these new schools is government sign off. As soon as the government gives the go ahead the city council will enter procurement to build the new schools. My concern is that our local Labour MPs are delaying the projects for political reasons, during the election campaign.
Our Labour MPs have already let the city’s young people down once, by refusing millions of pounds of promised funds to rebuild Taunton’s and Itchen college. It would be shameful for them to put our new secondary schools at risk too.
Showing posts with label Taunton's College. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taunton's College. Show all posts
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Labour Should Stop Undermining the City's Schools and Colleges
Southampton's Labour Party seem determined to undermine the city's schools and colleges.
In direct oppostion to their national party position they are anti the city's two new academies. They would send back the £35m secured by Conservatives on the city council to rebuild these schools. They did everything they could to make life difficult for the two academies in their first year; yet despite all their negativity the academies have delivered improved GCSE results for local children.
Southampton MP John Denham is directly responsible for the colleges funding fiasco. Mr Denham pulled the plug on millions of pounds of funding to improve Taunton's, City College and Itchen College. The Government is still refusing to refund the money that the colleges spent on preparing for the promised rebuilds. This is money that should be returned to the colleges so that they can spend it on improving the education of local young people.
Now Labour Councillors are trying to block Bitterne Park School from developing a sixth form. This would provide extra choice for students in Southampton and would help cater for the increasing numbers staying on to study post sixteen. Bitterne Park has been awarded £6m for new sixth form facilities and has received the backing of Conservative Councillors. Yet Labour are doing all they can to put obstacles in the way of the school.
In direct oppostion to their national party position they are anti the city's two new academies. They would send back the £35m secured by Conservatives on the city council to rebuild these schools. They did everything they could to make life difficult for the two academies in their first year; yet despite all their negativity the academies have delivered improved GCSE results for local children.
Southampton MP John Denham is directly responsible for the colleges funding fiasco. Mr Denham pulled the plug on millions of pounds of funding to improve Taunton's, City College and Itchen College. The Government is still refusing to refund the money that the colleges spent on preparing for the promised rebuilds. This is money that should be returned to the colleges so that they can spend it on improving the education of local young people.
Now Labour Councillors are trying to block Bitterne Park School from developing a sixth form. This would provide extra choice for students in Southampton and would help cater for the increasing numbers staying on to study post sixteen. Bitterne Park has been awarded £6m for new sixth form facilities and has received the backing of Conservative Councillors. Yet Labour are doing all they can to put obstacles in the way of the school.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Give Our Colleges Their Money Back
The Government has behaved in the most shameful and inept manner towards our local colleges. It was announced a couple of weeks ago that all the colleges in the city and in Hampshire would lose out on the millions of pounds promised to them for rebuilds.
Today a Parliamentary Select Committee report was published revealing in detail the staggering level of incompetence by both the Learning and Skills Council and the Government department whose job it is to oversee the quango. Responsibility for the fiasco must be laid squarely at the door of local MP John Denham who was the Secretary of State at the time.
Not only have the colleges been denied the money promised them, they have spent huge sums of money in preparation for the rebuilds. This is money that has been spend on planning permission, architects fees, survey work etc. It is money that could could have been spent on improving the education of young people locally. Between them Itchen College and Taunton's College have spent over £1.5m. Multiply this across the country and the figure is more than £200m!
On Wednesday I put forward a motion to Southampton City Council. This called on the Government to return the sunk money that the colleges have spent. This achieved all party support. Today the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee is echoing this call. I hope that the Government will listen and pay back the money. Under the circumstances that is the least they can do.
Today a Parliamentary Select Committee report was published revealing in detail the staggering level of incompetence by both the Learning and Skills Council and the Government department whose job it is to oversee the quango. Responsibility for the fiasco must be laid squarely at the door of local MP John Denham who was the Secretary of State at the time.
Not only have the colleges been denied the money promised them, they have spent huge sums of money in preparation for the rebuilds. This is money that has been spend on planning permission, architects fees, survey work etc. It is money that could could have been spent on improving the education of young people locally. Between them Itchen College and Taunton's College have spent over £1.5m. Multiply this across the country and the figure is more than £200m!
On Wednesday I put forward a motion to Southampton City Council. This called on the Government to return the sunk money that the colleges have spent. This achieved all party support. Today the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee is echoing this call. I hope that the Government will listen and pay back the money. Under the circumstances that is the least they can do.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Labour Betrays Our City's Colleges
Labour's decision to pull the plug on funds to rebuild Taunton’s and Itchen College is disgrace.
Colleges in Southampton and the rest of Hampshire were promised funds for ambitious rebuilds which would give them the facilities they need to equip young people for the 21st century.
At the end of June the Government announced a shortlist of 13 further education projects that would proceed. Southampton has been left waiting for months to hear if its planned projects would be given the go ahead and we have now finally learned that the city is excluded from the list, with the majority of funds going to the Labour heartlands in the North of England.
Southampton's colleges join the list of over a hundred colleges around the country that have been betrayed by Labour and not given the funds they were promised. The 13 colleges that remain on the list are still not guaranteed to go ahead and if they do they may find that their funding is considerably reduced.
More than a million pounds has been spent locally in Southampton in preparation for the rebuilds. Taunton’s College has received planning consent from the city council and building work was ready to start. On the east of the city Itchen College was due to move to the Eastpoint Centre in Thornhill. This was part of a much more ambitious, wider project which would aid the regeneration of the area, supporting the redevelopment of the Eastpoint Centre and Sholing Technology College being rebuilt on the vacated Itchen College site with Building Schools for the Future funds. The city council is now working hard to ensure that these other important projects are not jeopardised by the Government withdrawing the college money.
This is another blow for Southampton from a government that is not interested supporting the city. This comes on top of the decision earlier this year to scrap a planned grant of £4.6m to refurbish the city centre’s Guildhall Square and extra taxes that are being piled upon businesses in the Port.
Despite all the rhetoric from Gordon Brown saying that he is investing in public services, all we see locally is broken promise after broken promise and money being taken away from the city.
Colleges in Southampton and the rest of Hampshire were promised funds for ambitious rebuilds which would give them the facilities they need to equip young people for the 21st century.
At the end of June the Government announced a shortlist of 13 further education projects that would proceed. Southampton has been left waiting for months to hear if its planned projects would be given the go ahead and we have now finally learned that the city is excluded from the list, with the majority of funds going to the Labour heartlands in the North of England.
Southampton's colleges join the list of over a hundred colleges around the country that have been betrayed by Labour and not given the funds they were promised. The 13 colleges that remain on the list are still not guaranteed to go ahead and if they do they may find that their funding is considerably reduced.
More than a million pounds has been spent locally in Southampton in preparation for the rebuilds. Taunton’s College has received planning consent from the city council and building work was ready to start. On the east of the city Itchen College was due to move to the Eastpoint Centre in Thornhill. This was part of a much more ambitious, wider project which would aid the regeneration of the area, supporting the redevelopment of the Eastpoint Centre and Sholing Technology College being rebuilt on the vacated Itchen College site with Building Schools for the Future funds. The city council is now working hard to ensure that these other important projects are not jeopardised by the Government withdrawing the college money.
This is another blow for Southampton from a government that is not interested supporting the city. This comes on top of the decision earlier this year to scrap a planned grant of £4.6m to refurbish the city centre’s Guildhall Square and extra taxes that are being piled upon businesses in the Port.
Despite all the rhetoric from Gordon Brown saying that he is investing in public services, all we see locally is broken promise after broken promise and money being taken away from the city.
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