July 5: Building schools plans become rubble
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IT was hailed as a once in a lifetime
opportunity for Kent schools but now it has all but disappeared for
40 secondaries after the government, in the form of schools
secretary Michael Gove, announced massive cuts to the previous
government’s programme.
Kent
schools hit by government cutbacks>>>
Gone are plans to spend hundreds
of millions of pounds to replace dilapidated facilities across the
county. Also at risk are plans to redevelop eight planned academies
- even more of a shock.
KCC’s expression of surprise and
disappointment is diplomatically couched but behind the scenes, I
imagine feelings are running high.
Expectations have been dashed
and KCC could be left to pick up the tab for paying consultants,
lawyers and technical specialists it has been forced to bring in to
help develop various rebuilding schemes that are now on the
scrapheap.
It will be interesting to see if
the government agrees to reimburse authorities this money – and
interesting to see how much KCC has spent.
A significant number of
construction jobs that were being created on the back of BSF are
also at risk.
Michael Gove has highlighted the
needlessly complex processes that were involved in the BSF
programme and rightly so. It seemed an unwieldy way of doing things
and involved so many complicated stages, it was difficult to make
sense of much of it.
But I can’t help feeling that
this decision is one that could become a hostage to fortune for the
government.
Parents who see their children
being taught in dilapidated classrooms that desperately need a
makeover or should be pulled down, while across town pupils are
strolling into brand new premises that have escaped the cuts,
will not much care for the argument that the previous government’s
programme was overly bureaucratic.
The government has handed the
opposition parties a gift-wrapped opportunity to portray it as a
"slash and burn" administration which, worse, doesn't mind doing so
at the cost of childrens' future prospects.
Still, there is an alternative
view about all this. It was one put to me by Robert Straker, the
Kent head who represents his colleagues on the NAHT. His view is
that it doesn't really matter whether you have state-of-the-art
facilities. What counts is the quality of the teaching staff. Not
that he's against redevelopment of buildings - just that he thinks
some of the money allocated to BSF might have been better spent
elsewhere.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Is a new broom beginning to sweep through County Hall under
the auspices of new group managing director Katherine
Kerswell?
A statement on KCC's website
marking the new MD's first week at work says that she will be
publishing her expenses online for all to see "shortly."
Admittedly, this will not be something Ms Kerswell will be
uncomfortable with - she was equally open in her former job as
chief executive of Northamptonshire county
council, even publishing her salary details.
But it's definitely a move in
the right direction towards openness and transparency, albeit a
small one.
Tuesday, July 06 2010
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