Southwark & Lewisham Schools Escape Funding Cuts

With a coalition government in place we knew it was only a matter of time before the axe came crashing down on our local services, small businesses have already suffered a major blow in the emergency budget and now the Educational Secretary, Michael Gove has just announced that the government funded 'building schools for the future' programme is to be axed.

Gove backed his decision with the claim that 'the cancellation of over 700 hundred school builds would help reduce Britain's £150billion deficit.' The sweeping cuts hit the north of the country hardest, with many schools funding being scrapped completely, but in Labour-run Lewisham and Southwark councils have managed to escape the funding cuts and just about all schools surrounding Crystal Palace have seen their funding remain in place. This is a stark contrast to Lambeth, where all building schemes have been stopped.

The decisions to keep funding in place in some areas and cut completely in others, seems rather random and very unfair. I would like to know how these underdeveloped schools are supposed to provide the same standard of education with little or no funding from the government for building improvements and development, and why it is acceptable to make our children suffer for the mistakes of others.

We are extremely lucky in Crystal Palace that we have access to so many quality schools in the surrounding areas, many of which already have academy status, it appear these are the schools the government are most interested in saving the funding for. Many schools were in the process of securing funding and have now been left in limbo, some of these include: The Brit School, Harris Academy, Selsdon High School and Norwood School, to name a few.

Neighbouring Lambeth was also hit and Cabinet Minister for children and young people, Councillor Pete Robbins told the South London Press  “We are incredibly disappointed at the decision to pull the plug on what are much needed projects. Some of these schools are in an incredibly poor condition with children in temporary classrooms. We put a lot of money, time and effort to create designs for these eight secondary schools and now that's all gone."

Will your children be affected by latest government funding cuts? Let us know what you think...

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