Swindon Borough Council : Contradictions In Education Since 1997

A public forum at the Link Centre recently was parents 'last chance' to voice objections to the cutting of funding for bussing pupils from West Swindon to Ridgeway and Bradon Forest Secondary Schools.

The Borough Council is claiming surplus places at Greendown School, in West Swindon, will mean spending £500,000 for no reason on transport to schools out of the area.

However, as Bradon Forest headteacher Len Spiers said, the council is advocating breaking one of the fundamental commandments of modern education, choice in where to send your child. "Transport has been provided for the last 45 years. The consultation document is misleading as it indicates the transport was only provided because there has been a lack of secondary places in the area."

Swindon Centric Says ; It was 'dropped in' that there are currently 200 surplus places at Greendown, then why is discussion of this only taking place now? How can the Council say that sending all West Swindon pupils to Greendown will give parents and pupils choice in education. Plus, what will Bradon Forest and Ridgeway do with the vast school facilities they now have once all the West Swindon pupils go to Greendown?

This 'consultation' sounds ominiously like that which happened in West Swindon a few years ago, we all know how the Council didn't listen and indeed misled local residents and parents then.