New school plan was long overdue
SIR - I was interested to learn that our experienced MP, Mr Nick Harvey, a Liberal Democrat minister in the coalition government, is complaining against the cuts which have seen significant and long overdue works at Ilfracombe and Chulmleigh Schools axed.
SIR - I was interested to learn that our experienced MP, Mr Nick Harvey, a Liberal Democrat minister in the coalition government, is complaining against the cuts which have seen significant and long overdue works at Ilfracombe and Chulmleigh Schools axed.
Is this a cheap jab to try to deflect responsibility from his part in all this? Just before the Election, North Devon and our MP were also caught out by the new North Devon College plans being scotched and a �6million total write-off in having formulated those plans.
There has to be a follow-on point to this latest news, especially in the case of Chulmleigh School which, until quite recently, was also relying on some 'temporary' classrooms which were installed in the 1930s!
It is simple and it is this. He has been the MP for North Devon for 18 years and it was his colleagues in County Hall who controlled the Education budget for 16 of those years, with the county leader living up here and surrounded by his Lib Dem colleagues for most of that time.
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Why didn't he ensure that this imperative spend had received the priority it justly deserved and for so long? It has been on his watch and had he pushed buttons to progress the rebuild before now and not relied upon what has now been shown as a sham, last-minute Labour overspend, then the deficiencies in the buildings at Chulmleigh would be well on the way to being resolved.
The results being achieved by teacher and pupil alike at Chulmleigh despite these unacceptable conditions deserve special mention, too.
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As a curious follow-on, new leader of the Lib Dem Group in North Devon, Cllr Brian Greenslade (who was Devon County Council's leader) is now complaining that North Devon isn't receiving any of the significant government money for pothole repairs! He cites the problem of such political decisions being made in the south of the county yet it was he, accompanied by our MP, who was leading the campaign to sell North Devon down the river into a Devon-wide unitary controlled from Exeter (or probably Exmouth if Exeter went alone)!
Politics is a funny thing...... and I do hope people remember these points when the time comes.
PHILIP J MILTON (Conservative candidate for North Devon - 2010 General Election)
