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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Stephen Knight on the battle lines in local politics: schools and homes
February 2, 2012 5:24 PM
• [Feb 01]Stephen Knight* writes: TWO key local themes have emerged in recent months that embody the battle lines in local politics:
- The first theme is education and schools, where the Liberal Democrat approach over the years has been a rigorous focus on improving outcomes for young people. It is an approach that has produced one of the most successful education systems in the country. We targeted investment where it was most needed to raise standards. Alongside this we invested in planned permanent expansion of our successful schools in order to accommodate growing pupil numbers.
The Tories by contrast, are driven by ideological dogma. They want to spend over £25 million on building sixth forms at each of the secondary schools in the name of 'tradition', even though our young people already perform extremely well at the two excellent local colleges. Using up spare land at the secondary schools on sixth forms will also prevent them from expanding their intakes to meet the needs of the growing number of 11-16 pupils. At the same time they want to use the only available site for a new school for one that will only be available to children from Catholic families and instead expect new and untried 'free school' operators to emerge and meet the need for extra places.
- The second local theme is the provision of affordable housing. The Liberal Democrats always gave the provision of new affordable homes a very high priority. The Tories, however, take the view that affordable housing is "a very low priority" according to their deputy leader and recently gave permission for the Twickenham Station development to go ahead with 115 luxury private apartments and not a single affordable home.
On both these issues we are providing robust opposition and giving residents a clear alternative to the current Tory administration.
* Cllr Stephen Knight - Leader of the Opposition; taken from the spring members' newsletter
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