Fury erupts as Tory Cabinet vote UNANIMOUSLY against the Children of Amble
Fury erupts as Tory Cabinet vote UNANIMOUSLY against the Children of Amble
Today (11th July 2017) the new Tory Cabinet at Northumberland County Council voted unanimously against the investment pledged by the Labour Administration for James Calvert Spence College.
Work had been underway with the school since 2015 to create a plan that provided the best possible educational facilities to help drive up standards and give opportunities to the young people of Amble and surrounding areas.
The then Chair of Governors Scott Dickinson who’s term of office came to an end in October 2016 said: “we had been working on this for a long time, this was about working with the Council to invest in facilities that can help teaching staff raise standards of educational provision in Amble and the surrounding areas.”
“While Alnwick, Ponteland, Prudhoe and others had commitment and facilities built I was determined Amble would be part of the educational investment from NCC. Clearly with this Tory administration we are moving back in time to where only major Towns are cared about or invested in.”
In a recent meeting the new Leader said the project hadn’t reached business case stage and therefore couldn’t be approved. The former Labour administration pointed out that email correspondence had a business case being ordered by the then Chief Executive back in March 2016 so it should have been easily ready by now to provide to Cabinet in support of the Cabinet advisory Groups recommendations.
Councillor Susan Davey Labours Chair of the advisory Group at the time said "After the many years of discussion to ensure we made the right improvements to help Amble's young people I'm pleased we have decided to advise the Cabinet that the necessary works have our blessing and we see this investment as beneficial for young people in a very deprived part of the rural coalfield".
The School had been asked to complete the educational brief back in July of 2016 which is the document required to aid in the internal planning.
Documents are also available for viewing that show the Architect was appointed and all other wheels in motion. So it is utter nonsense to suggest it wasn’t ready for approval at this stage.
Terry Clark the local Labour member in Amble said "I see that the Tories are once again ignoring Amble whilst pushing ahead with pouring money into new schools in Ponteland. Its noticeable the the new schools there, sitting in the Tory Leaders ward, will have many millions poured in to support some the wealthiest kids in Northumberland, yet some of the Counties poorest young people from Amble are to be denied similar levels of investment as to the Tories, Amble's children just don't matter."
