Wokingham Tory budget ignores crumbling schools

12.00.00pm GMT Fri 22nd Feb 2008

At last night's budget meeting at Wokingham Borough Council, Councillor Beth Rowland (Lib Dem councillor for South Lake ward) paid tribute to school staff, governors, pupils and their families for achieving excellent examination results and attaining high standards in education.

Councillor Rowland said, "Everyone works so hard, but they are handicapped by the state of the school buildings. They are crumbling around our ears. But the Conservative controlled council has failed to budget enough for school repairs yet again. In fact, over three consecutive years the Tories took millions of pounds out of this budget.

"As a result, many repairs were neglected and now they'll cost more. Now every penny in the schools maintenance budget will have to be spent on urgent health and safety work, and there's nothing left for any other urgent repairs. This is Tory short-termism at its worst: save a few pennies now, but then have to spend pounds later.

"This isn't the only gap in the Tory budget: the new Vocational Centre and the unit for our secondary school age children with autism have both been delayed for a year.

"This is a disgrace - our hard-working staff and pupils deserve better than this."