Parents demand for a school in Pontprennau has been one of the biggest issues in the Ward for many years. Along with local Labour Councillor, Georgina Phillips, I have supported this call and back in September 2004 seconded an amendment to a notice of motion which had been put by the Conservative Group on the Council.
This motion called for the:
"Executive to instruct the relevant officer of the Council to start the design and planning process to build a primary school in Pontprennau, with a view to the early completion of a school, which would serve the residents of Pontprennau who currently do not have a single school in their area."
Proposed by Councillor Dianne Rees (Conservative)
Seconded by Councillor David Walker (Conservative)
Whilst we indicated that we would support this we knew that this was so wishy washy that it would allow the Administration to wriggle out of giving any commitment to actually build a school and so we proposed an amendment which called upon the Council's Executive (The Liberal Democrat Administration) to:
"ensure funding is allocated, design and planning processes complete, so that a primary school is opened in Pontprennau, on the site already reserved for it, adjacent to Pontprennau Community Centre, for the start of the new school year in 2007 at the latest."
Proposed by Councillor Georgina Phillips (Labour)
Seconded by Councillor Sophie Howe (Labour)
(See below for the text of the speech I gave at Council during this debate).
We were astounded when the Conservative Group, including local Conservative Councillor for Pontprennau and Old St Mellons, Dianne Rees, failed to support this amendment which would have been a real commitment to building a school in Pontprennau and a timescale for it to be opened. As a result of their failure to support this amendment it was lost. Worse still Councillor Rees then accepted an amendment from the Liberal Democrats which said:
"Without prejudging the outcome of the Council's consideration of the Schools Organisational Plan, the Council calls on the Executive, subject to the budgetary process, to start the design and planning process to build a primary school in Pontprennau, with a view to the early completion of a school, which would serve the residents of Pontprennau who currently do not have a single school in their area."
As Georgina Phillips said at the time this was the worst of all options as it's basically political speak for "We might give you a school IF the Officer's recommend it AND the Executive agree it AND there's enough money left in the budget."
Some 15 months on we were no closer to having a school in Pontprennau - no surprises there!!
However it seems the Tories finally had to admit that what we had said back in September 2004 was right - their motion would not take us any further. Therefore in December 2005 Councillor Rees proposed a motion which was almost word for word what we had proposed in September 2004 and the Tories had voted against. Of course we were happy to support this as it was in effect our motion and after a long meeting of the Council which went on to the early hours it was passed.
Unfortunately the Tories change of heart has come too late as the Chief Executive has said that the timescale of 19 months to secure funding, build and open as a school a school was unrealistic. My view is that if the Tories had supported us back in 2004 there would have been ample time for the school to be ready to open in September 2007.
Along with Georgina I will continue to fight for the much needed school in Pontprennau. Our next task will be to ensure that budgetary provision is made and a realistic timescale is agree and met.
Text of Sophie's Speech to Council seconding an amendment on Pontprennau School September 2004
I firmly support the comments that Georgina Phillips has made. Georgina has campaigned tirelessly on behalf of the people of Pontprennau to secure a school and was in fact instrumental in achieving the most important aspects so far of securing funding in order for the Council to buy the land for the school. Indeed had this not been done there would be little chance of the residents of Pontprennau ever getting a school as all available land would be taken.
However what we now must ensure is that the residents and children of Pontprennau do actually have a primary school and that they have a school before many of them are old enough to move on to High School. The Liberal Democrats have, whilst in opposition, claimed to support the case for a school in Pontprennau. With this in mind I am sure that they will now be able to support our amendment which would give a commitment to building one within a specified time frame.
This is not what is being proposed by the motion. As it stands the notice of motion would only result in the plans for the school being drawn up. It gives no commitment to build a school or even to provide the funding for it and certainly does not give any time frame. It is all very well building (or in this case drawing) castles in the sky but we must have the foundation to put beneath them and these foundations must come in the form of a commitment from the Executive to fund the building of this school. The notice of motion seeks to raise expectation amongst the residents of Pontprennau whilst promising to actually deliver nothing. Maybe the Tories have been taking lessons from the Liberal Democrats on this point as they are particularly good at tying up packages of promises with sparkly paper and big red bows only to find when opened that the package is empty. The motion is a cynical attempt by the Tories to claim the credit for delivering something that cannot possibly come from this wishy washy notion.
If we really want to support the residents of Pontprennau we must provide the funding for a school for this community and give the residents who have waited so long a firm commitment as to when they can expect it to be open. This reflects the aspirations and the long standing commitment of the Labour Councillor for the ward and can only be secured by supporting our amendment.
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