Allegations that Labour is stopping a Council Scrutiny Committee from looking into the problems occurring due to a shortage of primary school places in parts of the Borough (particularly Southport & Formby) are being made.
Although the official figures for Sefton Council’s Primary School placements have not yet been published, it is known that many Southport and Formby Primary schools, in particular are full up already – with a rising birth rate putting more pressure on in the coming few years.
Birkdale Lib Dem Councillor Richard Hands, who proposed that the Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee should study the School Place problems says
“I do not know what Labour are playing at. They have Scrutiny Committees looking at all sorts of issues that the Council can do little about yet they refuse to look into the problem of school place provision which is a number one consideration for young families in many parts of the Borough.
I have been monitoring the pupil numbers for some time and have raised my concerns repeatedly. There over 900 houses being built soon on the Kew estate and the surrounding schools are full. Where are those children going to go? Will we be having to bus children to other parts of the borough?”
Southport councillor Tony Dawson has been asking for the figures on school places and demand for each school all through the summer.
“I have been fobbed off with the most bizarre excuses. Firstly, I was told that the figures were only provisional. Apparently, in Stalinist Sefton Council, some council officers are allowed to see provisional figures but no one else is.
More recently, I have been told I cannot see the figures because the Cabinet Member has not seen them yet. Maybe if the Cabinet Member was as interested in the problem as I and my Lib Dem colleagues are, perhaps we could all share the figures and see what needs to be done to address the problem?!”
Earlier this month, Ainsdale Lib Dem Councillor Haydn Preece caused uproar in the Council Chamber when he declared that the lack of a sensible policy for school places in Southport & Formby meant that we could face a prospect of bussing small children to Bootle where there are hundreds of spare school places.