Tories' Shocking Hypocrisy on Small Schools (Kirsty Williams AM )

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Kirsty Williams AM <info@kirstywilliams.org.uk>

Tories' Shocking Hypocrisy on Small Schools

June 11, 2008 2:00 PM

Minister Confirms Closure of Howey School in Powys

In the week following Assembly Education Minister Jane Hutt's confirmation of the closure of Howey School in Powys, Brecon & Radnorshire's Liberal Democrat AM Kirsty Williams has launched a scathing attack on Conservative politicians in the National Assembly for their failure to respond to the consultation process on proposals for the school's closure, which followed their failure to respond to the previous process conducted for Pontneathvaughan School in south Powys.

The lack of a formal response from Conservative Assembly Group Leader and Mid Wales AM Nick Bourne, or any other Conservative politician, to the consultation process has come to light following the issuing of the Minister's decision letter on Howey School to Powys County Council and the school head teachers. Both Powys County Council and the Welsh Assembly Government have confirmed that the only formal responses received for Howey School from national politicians were from Welsh Lib. Dems. Kirsty Williams AM, Roger Williams MP and Labour AM Alun Davies.

Commenting on the revelation, Kirsty Williams said:

"I am amazed at the rank hypocrisy of the Conservative's position on this. At the recent local council elections in Powys, local Conservative candidates campaigned on the slogan of protecting small schools. No doubt some of them got elected on that basis. We have heard so much from the Conservatives about how the so-called Rainbow Coalition would have saved all the small schools under threat in Wales if it had been formed after the last Assembly elections.

"Yet the Conservative Group Leader in the Assembly could not even be bothered to respond properly to consultations on proposals to close two schools in the region he represents, one of which was at the centre of a political battle between his candidate and the sitting Liberal Democrat councillor at the elections."

"The Conservative's inaction on all this contrasts starkly with the consistency of the Liberal Democrat position. I and Brecon & Radnorshire's MP, Roger Williams, opposed these closures, as did the Liberal Democrat Group on Powys County Council. Who knows where the Conservatives stand now?"

Disserth & Trecoed County Councillor, Les Davies, who is also Chair of Howey School Board of Governors, added his thoughts:

"I am flabbergasted that the Leader of a Party whose local candidates were so vocal in their attacks on me and the council over this issue did not respond to the consultation process. It completely blows apart any vestige of credibility that the Conservative Group members have on the schools issue in the council."