Education

Lib Dem Councillor Beth Rowland has raised fears more schools will become academies due to a lack of investment by the ruling Tories
advertisement

Lack of council investment pushing schools towards becoming academies, claim opposition

By Jon Nurse
March 01, 2013

‘Insufficient’ funding is driving ‘deteriorating’ schools to become academies, claims a councillor.

Council bosses denied the borough’s schools were falling apart and financial deals from Government were enticing headteachers to leave local authority control.

At a full council meeting on Thursday, Councillor Beth Rowland said she was saddened by Wokingham Borough Council’s investment in secondary schools over the past years.

She added: “You [the council] are at the point at which more secondary schools will be academies than will remain with the council. What is the biggest issue driving them into it? Money. Especially money for maintenance and improvements.

“I think it is really sad you are now prepared to borrow millions and millions of pounds to pour into Wokingham town centre, but in the past wouldn’t borrow even a fraction of that to repair our schools. What does this say to our young people?”

After the meeting, deputy leader of the council Cllr Rob Stanton said: “The financial plan shows that £1 million will be invested in school maintenance every year for the foreseeable future. That is in addition to kitchen improvement work, which has seen hundreds of thousands of pounds invested over the last few years, and that is planned to continue.

“It’s not fair to stand up and say our schools are falling to pieces. We are giving every penny we can to schools and are committed to continue to do so.”

Cllr Rowland said there was £20 million in repairs outstanding across the borough’s schools in 2009, when the council cut the budget for school maintenance by 40 per cent, and she has been unimpressed with the strategy on show since.

She added: “All this time you have dithered about from one extreme to the other with no coherent plan as to how you will address the deteriorating fabric of all our secondary schools. That has to stop.

“You need a coherent plan for what you are going to do about secondary schools. We have been telling you this for a long time. Let’s hope you manage to put a strategy in place before so many of the secondaries have become academies that it is too late to have any meaning.”

Of the eight secondary schools in the borough, The Piggott School in Wargrave, Maiden Erlegh School in Earley and The Holt School in Wokingham are academies, with The Forest School in Winnersh also in the process of leaving local authority control. The schools are being enticed by better financial deals with which the council can’t compete, according to Cllr Stanton.

He added: “In the secondary sector, we are currently investing £6 million in The Bulmershe School, £5.5 million in St Crispin’s School and the on-going spend in The Emmbrook on flood defences and maintenance continues. All this in the lowest funded council in England, not bad.”

| Submit Comments | View Comments (13)

« Previous Story | Next Story »

Most recent user comments 13 of 13

Guy, as I believe you are a (Conservative) Earley Town councillor I wouldn't expect you to be so informed about Woodley matters.

Although Cllr Baker is a Woodley Town Councillor and should have known better, so I would check anything that he says.

Having been both a borough councillor and a town councillor please believe me when I tell you that the Woodley Town Council budget process is far more open than that adopted by the borough where the opposition only get to see the figures a few days before the full council meeting - there is no discussion in committees as there is in Woodley.

Perhaps you could educate readers as to the situation in Earley TC.

Phil Challis, woodley
04/03/2013 at 09:22

Phil, i was running off old numbers and did not take in account the larger expenditure for this year, and given that Woodley's finances appear to be even more secretive than wokingham it is hardly surprising with the lack of information on the Web.

However, i would again state that a nigh on 20% reserve is excessive, if wokingham had a reserve of £20 million which would be the equivalent of 20%, WBC would be accused of hoarding. If that was the case then i would support your comments of lack on investment in education. Instead WBC are being financially prudent and investing £6 million in Bulmershe and another £5.5 million in St Crispin's.

GuyG
03/03/2013 at 16:23

Getting back to the issue of investment in education.

Every parent knows that for years WBC let the fabric of our schools decline through the lack of investment.

The Conservative leadership refused to borrow money to invest in the future of our children but are now prepared to borrow millions to pour into Wokingham town centre.

As I said "I think the Conservatives have their priorities wrong".

Phil Challis, woodley
03/03/2013 at 11:43

Guy had said that reserves would grow to 30% by 2014 - this is wrong and I fear could mislead.

The published Woodley Town Council budget for 2013/14 has expenditure at £1,668,984 and reserves at the end of the year at £318,586. That makes 19%.

Also published in this budget is the fact that the year end forecast for 2012/13 is a surplus of £33,086. Rather than add this to the reserves £26,660 ("most of the resulting surplus") is being used to maintain the precept at the same level for the 4th year in a row.

Unlike the secretive approach to budgets adopted by Conservative controlled Wokingham Borough Council, Woodley Town Council discusses its budget at committees and then Full Council over a number of weeks, so Cllr Baker; as a Woodley Town Councillor you have known this for weeks and you also know that it is published information.

I really don't know what your posting is trying to achieve.

Phil Challis, woodley
03/03/2013 at 11:36

Phil - You are either really suffering from amnesia or are deliberately trying to "con" residents into believing what is blatently untrue.

Let me reimnd you of the publicly available numbers which YOUR council has published. The reserves you hold in your "slush fund" are:

2008/09 £137,257 Actual 2009/10 £202,147 Actual 2010/11 £242,725 Actual 2011/12 £311,237 Actual 2012/13 £344,246 Forecast

These are hard facts officially signed off b y the auditors which even you with all your skill as a lib dem will find it hard to spin. That is a huge increase in ghe reserves for each of these 5 years!

I would love you to explain exactly where in the accounts that show "most of the resulting surplus is being used to keep the precept down"?

There is absolutely NO record of this occurring so someone is telling porkies here!

Cllr Keith Baker
02/03/2013 at 09:23

Take two bottles into the shower?

Apparently not.

Nowtas, West Berkshire
01/03/2013 at 22:37

Guy

To enable Woodley Town Council to set the precept at the same level as it has been for the last four years they are budgeting to take £26,000 from reserves. So I don't know where you get figures to support your comment about growing reserves by 2014 - complete fabrication.

Through cost saving and sound financial management last year, Woodley significantly under spent their budget during the year and most of the resulting surplus is being used to keep the precept down.

Phil Challis, woodley
01/03/2013 at 18:48

@ Beef Cake - You're correct, it was a typo. But you obviously were able to understand, so what was your point?

Dave35
01/03/2013 at 18:29

Phil there are times i just shake my head with your comments on millions in reserve comment at the moment.

WBC has a base budget expenditure of just over £100 Million roughly and in the reserves of just shy of £8 million, yes this millions in reserve i do not disagree with you there.

However, Auditors and the general rule of thumb for Council's recommend a reserve of 5-10% of Revenue expediture in reserve as a contingency. WBC's reserves of £8 million are between 7.5% and 8% so the council is doing it due diligence and keeping an adequate reserve.

I would point out though however, that Woodley Town Council with a revenue expenditure of £1.5 Million has a reserve of nearly £250 thousand so nearly 20% reserve and you plan to grow that to near enough 30% by the end of 2014.

GuyG
01/03/2013 at 17:18

' you need to give specific information to make your point effectively' .... and be able to spell funding, presumably.

Beef Cake Argh!
01/03/2013 at 14:03

How about hearing what additional funing is required and has been denied by the council? Easy to say the schools are underfunded, but you need to give specific information to make your point effectively

Dave35
01/03/2013 at 13:07

Wokingham Borough Council has millions in reserve and are borrowing millions to fund the regeneration of Wokingham Town and are spending £500,000 to reconfigure their offices.

I think the Conservatives have their priorities wrong.

Phil Challis, woodley
01/03/2013 at 11:39

It's not very clever to say "We are giving every penny we can to schools and are committed to continue to do so.”. It absolutely isn't true, is it? Maybe it was said purely as a soundbite, designed to mislead stupid people. Seems to be how politics 'works' these days.

On the wider issue, it's another example of Tories forcing privatisation by poor funding. Standard.