Immoral funds move not based on needs

To remove £281,000 from Churchfields Academy, which has the biggest indicator of disadvantage of any school in the borough, suggests this action does not match with these words. Money is clearly not being distributed according to need.

The person who made this statement will no doubt use the Nuremberg defence in that they are only following orders, but to add further disadvantage to youngsters in our most deprived communities is immoral.

At Churchfields, people should be aware that not only do around 40 per cent of students qualify for free school meals, which is the major indicator of deprivation, additionally about 30 per cent are not native English speakers.

Some 50 plus languages are spoken in our feeder primary schools, and many of our students come from families who are amongst the most deprived 10 per cent in Western Europe.

In the interests of fairness, I should point out that I am a teacher at Churchfields, and proud to be so.

My school not only deals well with the various challenges and difficulties that our students face, but at the same time, notwithstanding the above, manages to achieve a greater degree of progression for our students than any other school in the borough. These are not my figures, but 2011 League Table calculations.

This performance is achieved by an excellent staff both teaching and support who consistently go the extra mile to help students.

Removal of this money will not only mean some colleagues may be made redundant, but that the support to students will be reduced and this can only harm their life chances.

Additional English support costs money, one to one tuition costs money, breakfast clubs and pastoral care cost money, less money means less of these things in addition to larger class sizes which will result in less individual support for students.

I cannot comment on the situation at Dorcan or other schools in the borough, but I suspect their staff will make similar arguments to mine. Do kids at Commonweal, Isambard or Kingsdown really deserve more of these things than kids at Churchfields, Dorcan or Nova Hread?

Guy Green Old Town

...but not a shock

Your front page headline today speaks of “Robbing the poor to pay the rich”! It reminds me of an old music hall song from around 1900 which ran: “Tis the poor wot pays the piper, but the rich wot calls the tune” and concludes “'ain't it always been the bloomin' same?”.

Obviously little has changed in the past 112 years!

Greg Heathcliffe Okus Road Swindon

Budget shame

How nice of the Labour leader to have so many suggestions for the Council finances after the budget has been set (Letters page, March 8). It is a shame that neither he nor his party could be bothered to produce a full alternative budget showing how they would spend £134m of tax payers’ money.

Fact. There is no budget for consultants; we use consultants as and when the projects require them.

Fact. We are employing consultants on the university technical college, new schools for the town centre and Even Swindon and for the Stronger Together reorganisation of the Council – all of which the Labour Party supported. Can we now assume that the Labour Party does not want a new school for the town centre? Does not want a new school for Even Swindon? Does not want to save over £1m in senior management costs?

The Labour Party has been told on a number of occasions what the facts are but I suppose they can think no further than the next press release.

Fact: the Labour Party has committed itself to a new masterplan for developing the town centre – something that cost £300,000 in consultants’ fees by the time the current plan was published in 2009. By the way, Labour made no mention of this additional expenditure in its speeches on the council’s budget.

The people of Swindon deserve better than Labour’s policy-making by press release. The Conservative administration has delivered improved services, new schools, better performance and all for a second years’ zero per cent rise in Council Tax.

Coun Garry Perkins Deputy Leader Swindon Council

Thanks to you

Thank you to the generous people who contributed to our collection at The Brunel Centre on Saturday, March 10 . We raised an excellent £588 which will go towards supplying five Guide Dogs Puppy Walkers Starter Packs, which include dog collars, leads, grooming equipment, doggy toy and Guide Dog puppy in training tabards.

Thank you too to all the people that came along to enquire about the volunteering role of puppy walking; we met a lot of nice people who wanted to help.

We would also like to thank The Brunel Management Team for their help and support during the day.

The winner of the Dog Portrait Competition organised by Steve Iles of Capture Photography was a Schnauzer named Jack who lives with his owner in Blunsdon – they receive £300 for winning the competition, which is an awful lot of treats.

The competition raised £407 for Swindon Guide Dogs for the blind and we would like to thank Steve for his help and support – and everyone who entered their dog in the competition.

We would also like to thank the judges, Shirley Fletcher, John Fisher and David Rennard for the unenviable task of choosing a winner.

Alan Fletcher Chair Swindon Guide Dogs for the Blind

Clean up praise

I would like to add my thoughts to Mr Thompson’s letter of March 10. I was annoyed when I first read about Mrs Pook clearing rubbish from the field opposite her house.

Where are the people who are on Community Service Orders who are on payback time? I have never seen anyone doing anything to clear up or any other tasks.

I would like to know just what they are supposed to do to clear their CSO order.

I live near a public footpath that leads from a pub, two takeaways and a small supermarket and the footpath is only cleared every eight weeks, so I do know how Mrs Pook feels about this eyesore, and feel that the council should be doing something about it.

Good for you Mrs Pook, perhaps the council will reduce your Council Tax in payment for what you are doing Mrs W Allen Victoria Court Swindon

Not all together

I was recently listening to Baroness Varsy (of the House of Lords) defending her colleague Chris Hume, who recently resigned from government with a £17,000 golden handshake.

The man resigned for heaven’s sake, where in Hades do you reach a situation where an MP is paid to resign?

It is time that we peasants organised a cultural revolution and removed these overpaid leeches from their sinecures and deposited them in the real world where some people have to work for a whole year for that kind of money.

These blood suckers make me sick. We are all in this together? Yeah! Pull the other one.

C J Meek Cloche Way Upper Stratton.

Flick the switch

I was very pleased to see the council announcing in the Adver about the street lighting that was turned off being turned back on, following the wishes of many of the Swindon electorate.

However, could they please advise when the lights will actually be turned on; so far it seems we remain in darkness.

Appearing to do something many of the people in the borough want, without actually doing it – is this another ploy to gain votes as we near election time?

J Hill Grosmont Drive West Swindon

Banks arrogant

The continuing saga with the banking fraternity has culminated in decades of successive British governments attempts to fend off national decline.

In the 1950s Hong Kong with its vast resources of cheap labour, began to produce household goods which the then British government expediently chose to import to sustain a standard of living. Often these products were of poor quality but were considerably cheap and soon found a ready market.

These imports were later to be replaced by those from Japan and China, to the extent that now there is little to be purchased in the shops that is not made in that country, resulting in a dramatic decline in British manufacturing.

This was compounded by Mrs Thatcher in the 80s whose policy to modernised outdated manufacturing never materialised. She then decided to saddle the rampart, precarious banking fraternity beast, hopefully to compensate for the further decline in manufacturing.

In due course New Labour acquired the reigns of government and of the rampant beast, which was then apparently given freelance to range at will, the results of which we are familiar with.

Problem now is the bankers are arrogantly aware of how vital they are to the economy, feel immune to any controls or restraints a government attempts to impose upon them.

George Humphrey Ringsbury Close Purton