Old Town Ward Councillor, Nadine Watts, and some of her local constituents have felt aggrieved following yesterday evening’s Children’s Overview Committee Meeting that discussed the ‘Croft School review’.
Old Town Ward Councillor, Nadine Watts, and some of her local constituents have felt aggrieved following yesterday evening’s Children’s Overview Committee Meeting that discussed the ‘Croft School review’.
The review in to the opening and closing of schools (with the opening of Croft School being the key case-study) was commissioned at a Swindon Full Council Meeting in June 2012 and was completed by two people independent of the Croft School process- Keith Carby and David Wilkie.
Following the publication of the review the Children’s Overview Committee, comprising of 5 Labour Councillors, 1 Lib Dem Councillor and 7 Conservative Councillors, met to ask questions of the independent people commissioned to complete this report and to decided what action they would like taken next. Up to 10 aggrieved Old Town residents were in attendance at the meeting. Councillor Dave Wood, the Liberal Democrat Chairman of the committee, didn’t attend the meeting despite setting the date of the meeting.
The report states that “The Review Group concluded that there were significant problems with the associated communications strategy and with its implementation” (point 7.11, page 11) and that “it should have been made clear [by the council] that the consultation was about a number of important factors relevant to the safe and successful operation of the school, BUT not the decision to site the school at Croft” (point 7.15, page 12). The report makes clear that it was this problem that eventually led to residents feeling aggrieved with the Croft School process.
The Current Old Town Ward Councillor, Nadine Watts, who is also a member of the Children’s Overview Committee, said:
“Croft residents and I are disappointed with the outcome of this meeting and of the review generally. The authors of the report have done the best they can with the narrow remit they were given. However this report hasn’t looked at whether the Croft site was most appropriate for a school places demand that predominantly came from the Town Centre area and it doesn’t explain why an opaque steering group made up of just Conservative Councillors decided where the school should go.
The Labour Councillors on this committee called for an extension of the terms of reference of this committee to include these issues, but they were ignored by the Conservative Councillors on the committee.
Despite this obvious drawback, this report does make clear that residents were mislead, either intentionally or not, about the influence they could have over the decision of where the school should go. And it was that lack of clarity from the very beginning of the proposal to open a school at Croft that has made residents feel so frustrated. That was why I, along with my fellow Labour Councillors, called for the committee to recommend that residents receive an official apology from the Council. It is disappointing that the Conservative Councillors ignored our calls and voted to pass this report without the committee giving any sort of view.
I feel regret in particular for the local residents over the way they have been treated by Swindon Council and I really feel they deserved at the very least an apology for the way they were misinformed.”
Cllr Nadine Watts
Old Town Ward Councillor