BSF Blunder: Talking Point Hackney Gazette

15 Jul 2010

Governments often have to make unpopular choices.

But the Coalition’s decision last week to scrap the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, has proved more unpopular than most.

It did not help that Education Secretary Michael Gove managed to bungle his announcement and upset schools and whole communities in the process.

Schools that were initially given the go-ahead for their brand new buildings, a day later had that dream snatched from them.

Building work has been suspended on a total of 715 schools, who will no longer get the new facilities they were promised.

Luckily, the remaining Hackney secondary schools awaiting their revamp, including Our Lady’s, Cardinal Pole and Haggerston, already have contracts signed and so their work will go ahead.

But that does not excuse the blow to staff and students who had banked on new buildings and renewed

The fact that the Lib-Cons axed this project entirely without so much as a consultation or a second thought shows their arrogance and inexperience.

The Lib-Cons have told us these cuts are essential to fill the black hole in the economy.

But they promised after the election that they would only cut waste.

But what they really meant was anything they could make us believe was wasteful.

The Education Secretary Michael Gove told the Commons that the £55billion scheme had been hit by "massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy”

What he failed to acknowledge was the extraordinary work the project has achieved, especially in areas like Hackney.

Anywhere you look you can see how money poured into Hackney by a Labour government, has transformed the borough.

A grand total of £170 million will have been spent here by the end of the BSF project, and we have seen fantastic new buildings delivered at Hackney Free and Parochial, Clapton Girls and at Stoke Newington Media Arts & Science College, some of which I have had the pleasure of visiting.

These cuts by the Lib-Cons are short sighted and plunge hundreds of schools into despair.

 A Whitehall source said the whole process of deciding how much of the programme would be scrapped had been "bloody chaos” and suggests it was easier to cut all, rather than weigh up the pros and cons.

They also show the coalition for what they really are; same old Tories.

The decision has put the Coalition into dangerous territory.

Not only are Lib Dem MPs furious, but Tory MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said he is planning to lead a march to Downing Street in protest at the decision to axe school-building in his area in Bridgewater.

These cuts hark back to a time b efore Labour came into power 13 years ago, when the Tories would divert money from the inner cities and the schools that desperately needed it, and put it into the Tory shires.

I visited schools in Hackney who had to get out buckets when it rained because they could not afford to repair their roof.

To entirely axe a whole program which has revolutionised education, without so much as a second glance, is extremely thoughtless.

I have spent the last 10 years tackling the issue of black boys in the education system and I am all too aware of how important it is to motivate youngsters into learning.

A run down building and head that has to count every penny to get by, does not inspire children to learn.

New buildings, top equipment and good leadership can turn a school’s fortunes on its head.

The evidence is right on our doorstep here in Hackney.

Mossbourne Academy was one of the first academies to be opened back in 2005 on the site of struggling school, Hackney Downs.

New buildings and good leadership in Sir Michael Wilshaw, has seen the school become one of the best in the country.

Similarly, Clapton Girls, which has have new facilities, thanks to BSF, that are second to none, is also producing students who will be applying to some of our top universities.

I would hate for these knee jerk cuts by the Lib-Con coalition to undo all the good work that has been done to raise achievement here in Hackney.

As your MP and as your future Labour Leader, I intend to fight these cuts all the way.

 



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