Press Release: MP Calls on Gove to Visit Walthamstow to hear firsthand local case for schools investment

At education questions today in the House of Commons local Labour MP Stella Creasy championed the need to invest in school buildings in Walthamstow and urged Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, to agree to visit the area to meet those affected by his decision to cut funding for new school buildings. Speaking after the session Stella said:

"We have three schools - William Morris, Holy Family and Willowfield - which I know from personal experience all deserve refurbishment and for which money had been agreed before last week's decision.  We also need more school places here in Walthamstow to meet the demands of our growing population which these plans would also have created. I'm therefore pleased the Secretary of State recognised these challenges in his response; now I'm determined ensure his department hears firsthand the views of local parents, pupils, teachers and governors on their plans to stop these projects and the consequences this could have for the future of Walthamstow's children."

Stella is now liaising with the local authority and local schools as well as the ministerial private office to seek the earliest possible date for such a discussion.

 Notes

 The full text of Stella's question to the Secretary of State at Education Questions on 13 July 2010 is below:

Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op): I recognise that there are many pressing issues in Ministers' diaries, but may I beg the Secretary of State to take seriously the request by Willowfield school in Walthamstow to host a meeting for him, for parents from the Walthamstow area, and for parents affected by the decision to stop all the wave 1 school projects in Walthamstow, including those involving William Morris school and Holy Family college? There could then be a discussion about how we can meet our urgent need for school places in the locality, given that all those buildings have been condemned as not fit for purpose--a bit like the present Government.

Michael Gove: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for asking a very good question with a nice scorpion sting in the tail. I appreciate that in some parts of the country, because of the way in which Building Schools for the Future was run, the decision that we had to make bites more sharply. Waltham Forest is one of them, Somerset another, and Liverpool a third. For that reason, I will ensure that one of my Ministers or officials contacts the hon. Lady very quickly to see what we can do to alleviate this necessary blow.