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Furious parents turn on councillors

ON 17 October, over 400 parents, school students and teachers gave the leader of Wokingham District Council and its officers a grilling over the consultation to close Ryeish Green, our local secondary school.

Sara Gillman Reading Socialist Party

No one held back in criticising the council's wish to sell off the land for development (making millions of pounds on the way!). The council have deliberately run down the school to 'demonstrate' that the school's 'falling numbers' mean it will have to close.

The Tory council leader tried to lay on the flannel "that although no decision has yet been made, it is likely that the closure of the school will mean the site will be used for development." However, parents, teachers, governors and school students were not to be patronised.

From the floor, we made the councillors and officers so nervous that they threatened to close the meeting several times unless we could ask 'respectful' questions and behave!

The parent action group already has 3,000 signatures on a petition and has started up a well thought out campaign with regular meetings, publicity and petitions. Socialist Party members have been invited to speak on other campaigns we are involved in to stop school closures elsewhere and how these have moved forward. The campaign group has certainly made the council sit up and listen with councillors shocked at the strength of feeling.

Our leaflets were well received about the Campaign for a New Workers party (CNWP) meeting on 9 November. We will be attending the action group meeting, offering our support and ideas and getting involved as well.