SCHOOLS FOR THE AUCTION HOUSE ?

Given that there is almost a blackout on criticism of the revised schools proposals I hope that the following is useful information -a list of schools that will no longer be needed if these proposals are implemented:-

Newport area - Hunnyhill, Node Hill;

Cowes area - Gurnard, Love Lane;

East Cowes area - East Cowes, Whippingham;

Ryde - Greenmount, Oakfield;

East Wight - Forelands, St Helens;

Sandown - Broadlea, St John's;

Shanklin - none;

Ventnor - St Boniface, St Margaret's, St Wilfred's;

South Wight - Chale;

Central Wight - Chillerton & Rookley;

Totland - Weston;

Yarmouth - Yarmouth.

19 in total.

With less than certain futures: Newport - Downside; Freshwater - West Wight.

That's lot of real estate for the auctioneer's hammer...........

Eco Island ? They're joking!

So this is what Eco Island is about !

A highly contentious 'highway improvement' scheme is being introduced near where I live in Fairlee ward. I oppose it. The scheme that is now being introduced is not only contentious - but ENTIRELY different to what local residents were told it would be during the consultation. The revised scheme appears to have allowed the cutting down of two entirely healthy trees to create traffic turning areas. Cars before the environment.......the usual stuff.

When I saw this happening this morning I contacted the Council's tree preservation people. They told me they only protect trees that don't belong to the Council as the assumption is that the Council would not cut down trees unnecessarily. Staggered by this chutzpah I then tried to contact Highways, but 8.30am was a bit early for an answer. So the trees bit the dust to the amazement of all who witnessed it.

I have emailed MY councillor about it, but no reply so far. I will post actual pictures later....

NO RE-ASSURANCE FOR DOWNSIDE - STILL A GAP

Unlike some people I am not easily re-assured, especially when information is conflicting, or just plain illogical.

Yes, the published plans for the Downside School site include a new Pan primary school to service the new development, AS REQUIRED. However, the Pan development will be built from 2009 until 2020/2021 and will produce (I am told) a maximum of 60 school age children per year group once it is completed. Therefore, the need for a new 2-form entry school isn't going to arise for some years. In the meantime there are always places at Barton and Summerfields Primary's - both in the local area. I would estimate the earliest the new school would be built to be 2014/2015.

In the meantime the Downside site is going to be used as temporary overflow school for Medina Secondary - from autumn 2011 until the summer of 2012. An overflow site with 'a single leadership and a single governance'. Though the Council's published plans do not mention the word 'temporary' and imply that Downside is going to have two schools on site, a new primary and a Medina lower school - clearly utter rubbish !

Consequently there will be a gap of at least two or three years where there will be no school whatsoever operating on the Downside site. In effect a closure, as I claimed one week ago - though the media seems to prefer the Council spin on this rather than the truth.

Looking at the overall plans there is massive spin associated with their publication. There are currently 67 schools on the IW, not including the two special schools. That is a figure easily researched. 46 are primary and there will be 38 after reorganisation. That's 8 less. Plus 16 middle schools closing, makes 24 closures. A couple of new schools in the long distant future - at Pan and West Wight - makes a net figure of 22 school closures. Its still carnage in my view.

Finally the monitor on my home PC died this morning. Its still under warranty, but I may be online a little less this week, as I have to borrow Mary's PC. Just in case you are trying to contact me, please bear with me.

SKIVER !

Last night was Full Council and I have to admit that I left after an hour and a quarter to watch the football at home. Yes, I am human - especially when the guts have been ripped out of Council meetings by this deceitful and unrepresentative Council leadership.

There was little of note to report on the 75 minutes I was there. Dave Burbage was appointed as Interim Chief Exec, the Standards Committee was increased in size so that for every four IW Councillors there is now one Standards member - its getting like Soviet Russia; a Crime Reduction Plan was agreed - Labour voted against due to various omissions; and the latest Local Area Agreement with our public sector partners on the Island was agreed - Labour against due to the 'poverty of ambition' (Cllr Gardiner) in the performance targets. Oh, and I made no speaking contribution for the first time in 3 years - other than a little bit of barracking !

NO TORY DEFENCE FOR THE INDEFENSIBLE

I got in from an urgent governors meeting at Downside School this evening to find an email from the Tory Cabinet Member for Closing & Scaring Schools, seeking to 'clarify' my understanding of the new plans to close Downside.

My response stands alone and is as follows:

"Your interpretation of the presentation made to school governors at the Newport Area meeting last Thursday would reveal you as being out of step with what your education officers are saying. They were certainly NOT saying last Thursday that the building 'as required' of a new 'Pan Primary School' on the Downside site will 'coincide with the build of the new development'. Unless, that is, you mean it will coincide with the last few years of the development - a development that will take at least 10 years plus to complete. In which case, your 'clarification' is worthless as the community - and the school governors - do not want an empty site for the early years of the development. We require continuity. Can you guarantee that ? Any distress to the Pan community has been caused by you and the Council leadership telling us that Downside was safe in all three original options, but then stabbing us in the heart with these latest plans. I have been, as ever, open with the people I represent."

A STAB TO THE HEART OF PAN

My latest Press Release - re. Downside Middle School:-

The IW Councillor for Pan, Geoff Lumley, has learnt that the IW Council intends to close Downside Middle School in 3 years time as part of its 'education reorganisation'. This is the first inkling throughout the last 4 months that there would be no school on the Downside site, and Cllr Lumley is both shocked and angry.

Consequently he is now calling for a halt to the proposed Pan development - due for a planning application submission in July - until the Pan community has a satisfactory and acceptable explanation as to why there has been such a sudden and surprising change in Council policy.

Cllr Lumley said,

• "Even up to a Councillors' confidential briefing on education reorganisation on 28 April - a confidentiality I respected - there was never any suggestion that there would not be a school on the Downside site;
• During all the discussions with the Downside School governors - of which I am the longest-serving one - about the proposed merger with Kitbridge Middle School there was never any suggestion that Downside would be closing and lots of supportive words about its future. This change of policy now puts that possible merger under further scrutiny as far as I am concerned;
• There have been constant assurances about the place of Downside at the heart of the Pan community when the Pan development starts. Talk about a new school, perhaps combining health and community facilities, and building on its current status as the ONLY Full Service Extended Community School on the IW. This talk now seems to have been used purely to cheat some of the community into reluctantly supporting the development;
• Young people on Pan have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the long-promised Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) adjacent to Downside School. It is currently promised for October, but how long will it last after July 2011 if there is no school there to manage it ? Or indeed will it still be built ? ;
  
• When these latest confidential plans - they will be officially released next Friday - were conveyed to Newport school governors, heads and staff last Thursday 15 May, Steve Beynon (Director of Children's Services) explained that there was no longer a need for a school on the Downside site until the developers at Pan were selling the new homes, which was now less certain due to the downturn in the housing market. However, at a Pan Development Steering Group on 29 April with the Leader and Deputy Leader of the IW Council, I was assured that the developers had no such fears. Who is being honest here, and if the new houses cannot be sold, why do we need so many new private houses as part of the development ? If they can be sold, then there is no doubt we will need a school there.
  

I intend to fight this proposed closure as hard as I can, and as far as I am concerned the Pan development should now be put on hold until the community gets some guarantees about the school at its very heart."

WHAT A LIBERAL VOTE WILL MEAN IN THE FUTURE

In the Daily Telegraph today:

Lib Dems: Nick Clegg will back Tories in hung Parliament

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, will support David Cameron if the Conservatives are the largest party in a hung Parliament.

In consultations with senior members of the party, he said he was prepared to take the necessary steps that would enable the Tories to form a minority administration.

Mr Clegg ruled out taking a Cabinet seat in a Conservative government in return for his support and instead would provide Mr Cameron with "supply and confidence" – meaning he would promise to back a Conservative Budget and would side with the Tories in any votes of confidence.

See - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/liberaldemocrats/1982920/Lib-Dems-Nick-Clegg-will-back-Tories-in-hung-Parliament.html

Nothing further to add really ! Explains why our local Tories have got so soft on the local LibDems......

'NO MAYOR' WINS AGAIN !

Last night was the inaugural meeting of the Newport Parish Council. I was elected - by 10 votes to 6 - to be its first Chair.

To my personal relief I am not going to have to wear the title of 'Mayor' for the next year after the meeting agreed by 9 votes to 7 NOT to re-title itself as a 'Town Council' - as it was entitled to. In itself that decision is a little incongruous given Newport's position as the County town, but as someone who successfully lead the campaign three years ago against a directly-elected IW Mayor it would have been even more bizarre if I had acquired that title !!!!

RETURN OF THE 'CLASS WARRIOR'

Well I'm back from an excellent week walking in the Lake District, feeling well refreshed and quite contemplative. A quick glance at the blog comments shows me that the 'nasty Mr Anon' does not seem to have worked out that I was away, and that as ever there are always decent Tories around. A shame so many have to behave so boorishly.

The appalling national election results were compounded for me by the defeat of Ken in London, but as an LD said in the letters of the CP this week 'what comes around goes around'. By all means gloat over the national results Mr Nasty Anon, but PLEASE - if you are so confident for the local scene - let me know who you are so that I can do the same here on the Island in May next year. But of course you won't, preferring to skulk on my blog anonymously and parasitically.

Finally my spirits on the ferry trip home on Saturday were greatly lifted by the aforesaid LD's additional comments that I remain 'an inveterate class warrior'. Another sobriquet I am happy to live with !

NEW TOWN COUNCIL FOR NEWPORT ELECTED

I went along to the vote count for the Newport and Ryde parish elections today. I was delighted that my partner Mary Craven was elected top of the poll in Fairlee ward, and even more delighted that there will seemingly be a non-Tory majority on the new Newport Town Council when it is constituted on 12 May, with only four known Tories being elected. One Tory County Councillor lost in his own ward - as did another (the Chair of Planning) in the Ryde elections.

Nationally the local elections were bad - just as they were in 2004. Labour nationally needs to reconnect with its core voters and to start shaping events instead of reacting to them. We will then repeat 2005 in 2009/10.

I am taking a week out from tomorrow, but expect to hear an explosion of joy somewhere in the Newport area this evening if Livingstone beats that buffoon.