Author: Standards-Not-Tiers
Isle Of Wight Council Likely to Face High Court in Parents Fight Against Mass School Closures On the Isle of Wight
Saturday, 20th September, 2008 at 9:31 am, Isle of Wight
Press Release from Standards Not Tiers
SNT (Standards-Not-Tiers), who are members of the National Association for Small Schools and Human Scale Education have told the Isle of Wight Council that it is likely to face high court action over plans to close 23 Island Secondary and primary schools.
SNT have also told the Council that it is not welcome at a mass public meeting they have organised in Newport on Monday the 22nd. This is a protest against exclusions from statutory consultation meetings held earlier in the year.
SNT and Isle of Wight SOS (Save Our Schools) groups decided that the Isle of Wight Council should be given a taste of their own medicine and senior Council officials and members of the ruling Conservative group will not be allowed entry to the meeting. This came after it was revealed by a senior council officer that the Council had not invited pre-school parents to school consultation meetings as the Council had no statutory duty to do so. SNT believes that this advice was wrong and that these exclusions may be illegal and is discussing the matter with it’s lawyers.
Mervyn Benford, Information Officer for the NASS (National Association for Small Schools) will present an analysis of the current education consultation at the planned meeting and show how the local authority has already failed in its duty to consult adequately with stakeholders.
Mervyn was instrumental in helping parents in Shropshire, Hereford & Worcester and Cumbria reverse mass closure decisions, earlier this year. Mervyn has spent his whole working life in education, as a teacher, Ofsted inspector and as an LEA officer and now although retired he campaigns ceaselessly for small schools all over the world. Mervyn has already written to the Council, Roman Catholic and Church of England Diocesan officers telling them that they have got the consultation badly wrong and need to call a halt to it but the Council is sticking its chin out and is going ahead regardless.
In the mean time parents have vowed to continue their 5 year fight.
Related posts:
- Councillors Confirm Motion To Stop Mass School Closures
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Standards Not Tiers have just issued a press release stating... - Isle of Wight Association of Local Councils “We Oppose School Closures”: Exclusive
Tonight the Isle of Wight Association of Local Councils voted... - Voluntary Aided School in Ventnor Offers No Choice for Parents
Whilst the Ventnor Town Council meeting was being held on... - IW Council Writes To Government Over School Closures
As you’ll be aware. there’s been some confusion on the...
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Is this yet another example of the council failing to follow the correct procedure and leaving themselves wide open to a legal challenge?
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The council failed to follow their own procurement procedure in respect of the Undercliff Drive, were taken to Judicial Review, lost, and then failed to follow the procedure when using Wragge & Co. for the inquiry.
It looks increasingly likely that they will face another Judicial Review over the planning processes used in the Jennings cases.
Now they face further legal action over the processes used in the Schools non-debate.
There is something seriously wrong with their decision making processes when it appears that there exists a senior officers mind set of confrontation with residents driven by the officers perceived immunity from culpability for their actions.
It seems that the lessons of the Undercliff Drive have not been learned by these arrogant fools.
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might want to think about the wording of your banner at the top of the page… ‘national ass’
- i had a chuckle at the very least
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Are you using IOW Council Officer specialist issue reading spectacles, whereby you only see what you want to see?
I, and I suspect, most others, see “National Assoc for Small Schools” in the banner at the top.
The only national ass would appear to be you, “don”.
If it was your intention to divert attention from or belittle this thread, then you have failed miserably, just like the as…… donkeys that I suspect you represent.
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sam antar
it has been corrected earlier today by the administration of this website, as it initially said (and was abbreviated to) ‘national ass for small schools’ – obviously a typo on behalf of the authors.
now, i think you should retract your previous statement.
regards.
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My apologies and suitably retracted.
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Thanks Don for pointing out the blooper – it was down to me preparing the graphic in a rush this morning.
I just had time to fix it before heading out of the door and didn’t get around to thanking you then for spotting it.
Thanks Sam for jumping to our defence so readily. Much appreciated.
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I finally heard this story on the IOW radio news yesterday, the council must have decided to give them and the County Press permission to report the story.
So back in court again…and I have no doubt that when the council are once again publicly shamed we will get the usual stock response “That lessons have been learned”….which is something the kids certainly wont be able to say if this council gets its way over the schools.
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