Weather
Colchester: It's not over yet (From Gazette)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting GAZETTE NEWS to 80360, or email
Colchester: It's not over yet
10:10am Friday 23rd January 2009
Campaigners today vowed to battle on amid fears education chiefs will push ahead with plans to close three Colchester secondary schools.
Proposals by Essex County Council leader Lord Hanningfield, unveiled today, recommend the closure of Alderman Blaxill, Thomas, Lord Audley (TLA) and Sir Charles Lucas schools.
The county council would replace Sir Charles Lucas with an academy with a military emphasis, while TLA would be transformed into a vocational school, and pupils from the south of Colchester would be taken to an extended Stanway School.
Rumours about the plans, which followed a consultation and a host of well-attended public meetings last year, have been circulating the town all week. Sources who contacted the Gazette last night said they would fight any proposal to close Alderman Blaxill and TLA if that was put on the table.
If the recommendation is approved by the county council’s cabinet on Tuesday, a second consultation, lasting six weeks, on the revised plans will start next month.
The proposals are similar to the “Option 1” originally outlined by Lord Hanningfield, and largely reject the popular “Option 4” – to amalgamate Stanway, Alderman Blaxill and TLA into one school at three sites, led by headteacher Jonathan Tippett.
Town MP Bob Russell said he feared hundreds of people who had sent letters and signed petitions opposing school closures had been ignored.
- More in today's Gazette
More News stories
- ‘Fairy godmother’ Pat helps struggling parents at home
- Stadium home plans fall foul of cutbacks
- Historian climbs Colchester tower for new tv programme
- Tackling drunks is draining A&E unit’s resources
- Is dead owner haunting his restaurant?
- Olympic cycle star tops big race line-up
- IT courses organised for the over-65s
- Hundreds of police jobs could go as cuts bite
- Con artists claim services endorsed by council
- Residents buy CCTV to tackle crime
Your Say YourColchester
localyokel, colchester says...
1:04pm Fri 23 Jan 09
Far fetched i know but better than
Colchester being destroyed by the Chelmsford mafia.
bruce67, prettygate says...
1:04pm Fri 23 Jan 09
ex so'ton, Abingdon says...
7:48pm Fri 23 Jan 09
Sidney Harbour-Bridge, Colchester says...
11:13pm Fri 23 Jan 09
bruce67 wrote:You're seriously deluded if you think any politicians at any level think about the views of the electorate other than in the seconds before the paper drops in the ballot box. Hanningfield is only doing what any other politician of any other party would do - might is right. The 'vote lib dem get labour' party are probraby the worst as they can't seem to make their minds up what they are!
I am only aware of local councillors when its local elections...EXCEPT LIB DEMS who make an effort all year round!!!!
Sdapeze, sdapeze@aol.com says...
11:21pm Fri 23 Jan 09
Cliff, Colchester says...
12:33am Sat 24 Jan 09
Laughter is the best medicine1, County wide says...
1:14am Sat 24 Jan 09
Cliff wrote:Nor those that apply critique to certain art.
This little list of rubbish emphasises how pointless this all really is. Our children's education is the most important thing to get right (and I don't think Lord H has by the way) and the only posts here which are anything other than stupid political crap are Sdapeze and localyokel to an extent. No wonder politicians don't bother to take us seriously.
('~')
hughie-s, Here says...
6:58am Sat 24 Jan 09
When they taught useful skills such as gardening to the less academically minded they had a very nice glasshouse at AB ;-)
Sdapeze -
A big question indeed, this may add to your suspicions...
From the Register of Lords' Interests -
HANNINGFIELD, Lord
15(d) Office-holder in voluntary organisations
Director, Local Government Association Property Ltd
localyokel, colchester says...
11:19am Sat 24 Jan 09
but less places under Lord h's plan.
Traffic is bad in this town to say the least yet under his plans chidren have to travel further for school which means even more traffic yes?.
Also the density of new housing is greater in Colchester than Chelmsford why? density = poorer quaility normally, i believe county council has say on density Oh that would be Lord H in Chelmsford?. The list goes on, now Lord H does not give a fig about the children of this town or its residents he has other motives call me paranoid if you wish but as far as he is concerned Essex stops at Chelmsford's boundry. While Chelmsford becomes a good place to live Colchester will become?????
franticmum, Colchester says...
2:30pm Sat 24 Jan 09
Boris, Colchester says...
1:26am Sun 25 Jan 09
If you were interested in the future of our secondary schools, then no doubt you were at some of the public meetings held before Xmas.
I was at meetings at AB, TLA and
SCL, and local opinion was well represented there (especially the first two).
Lord Hanningfield may yet ignore us, but those hundreds of pupils and parents will have given him cause to reflect. I can't believe he will pay any attention to the anonymous and sometimes cranky comments made on this website.
franticmum, Colchester says...
8:59am Mon 26 Jan 09
Your sayYour Colchester
Add your comment
Register for a FREE Gazette account and you can have your say on today's news and sport by adding comments on articles we publish. The best comments may even get published in the paper.
Please register now or sign in below to continue.
Buy this photo »
Parents, pupils past and present and campaigners Chick Cox, Barry Wild and councillor Dave Harris wait for the decision outside Thomas, Lord Audley S
Local Advertisers
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
guyfawkes999, England says...
11:13am Fri 23 Jan 09
Time to dump Communist Labour on St Andrews / Greenstead.