Suffolk: County Council will not take Stowmarket middle schools decision to scrutiny
By Matt Hunter
Friday, March 1, 2013
6:34 PM
SUFFOLK County Council will not be re-examining its decision to close middle schools in the Stowmarket area.
On Tuesday the council’s cabinet voted unanimously to close the schools despite fierce opposition.
The Liberal Democrats lobbied to have the scrutiny committee inspect the decision.
Lib Dem Penny Otton, spokeswoman for Children and Young People’s Services said: “Why has the county council refused this request? It is not only the Liberal Democrats who have been snubbed by this decision, but also the pupils and parents who have been refused any opportunity to make any further comment on this extremely important decision.”
Stowmarket, Combs, Bacton and Needham Market Middle Schools will all close in 2015.
The council undertook a two-month long consultation with schools and parents in the education pyramid.
Public meetings were held in schools and parents were able to submit their responses to the council.
A spokesman for Suffolk County Council said: “All call in requests have to be assessed by the council’s monitoring officer to see if there are legitimate grounds for the decision to be halted.
“In this case, the monitoring officer has found that information addressing to all of the grounds of the call in was in fact contained in the cabinet report or previous reports and that the decision is in line with previous decisions.
“His conclusion is that the cabinet did have sufficient information before them in order to make a sound decision. The call in has therefore been rejected.”
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4 comments
Due process has not been seen to be done. If the Cabinet have faith in their decision then why do they not have the common gumption to allow scrutiny. The answer is of course that they have cheated the electorate at almost every opportunity and due process would reveal that fact. There is only one recourse that I could recommend and that is the ballot box. Cheat your way out of that Cllr Newman. One further point, those of us who attended the meeting in Stowmarket were expecting to hear the outcome of a meeting between "Newman" and our MP Mr Ruffley. Although I have asked, there appears to be a deafening silence on that matter also.
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Gerry Shaw
Monday, March 4, 2013
Needham Market Middle should not be closed and should be turned into a High School this would save an absolute fortune & help Stowmarket and Stowupland with the ever increasing numbers as it is, Then the council should sort them self's out & the Funding before starting any 2 tier systems, Do the Council Have any Brains to realize this makes perfect sense
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A Chapple
Monday, March 4, 2013
Why has this been rejected? All the Local Cllrs at the Cabinet meeting asked for it to be put to Scrutiny and even called for it to be put in front of an independent adjudicator. How can a decision with such impacting consequences for the whole community - teachers, pupils etc not be properly looked at The consultation process was not done properly, as other options submitted were not taken into account AT ALL! The All-through proposal was completely rejected by headteachers despite evidence of a "single line of accountability" and would have stopped the need to make "Good" and "outstanding" Middle School teachers redundant. I urge the residents of Stowmarket, Stowupland, Combs, Needham Market, Bacton to think long and hard about their votes in May and beyond....Democracy is dead with this Conservative run Council!!
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MDavies
Monday, March 4, 2013
What a total and utter sham this process has been from start to finish !! "Consultation" - you must be joking !! Disgraceful from Suffolk County Council, but should we really be surprised ? How much do you reckon they will sell the substantial grounds of Needham Market Middle School to a property devaloper for !! Watch this space .
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gazza
Saturday, March 2, 2013