Cardiff: More schools fight closures programme

OPPOSITION IS still building against Cardiff council's school closures programme. 150 people attended a meeting in Rumney on 29 August to protest at plans to demolish Eastern Leisure Centre and squeeze staff and students from Rumney and Llanrumney High Schools onto the site.

The fields surrounding the centre will be built on and most land occupied by the schools will be sold off to property developers if this plan goes ahead.

Meanwhile, an action group has been set up to fight savage cutbacks planned for Whitchurch High School where the whole upper school site faces demolition along with two local primary schools.

The four main political parties, all sitting on the council's schools subcommittee, were united in backing these proposals. Students, education workers and campaigners need to be just as united in opposing them.

The local Labour Party have produced a leaflet claiming to support the campaign and pledged to "defend the leisure facilities" on the Eastern Leisure Centre site. But nothing in their pledge prevents them from backing the Leisure Centre's demolition in order to site a school on the fields.

They will claim that the school's leisure facilities - which will almost certainly be worse than Eastern Leisure Centre's and unavailable to the public during normal school hours - will still be 'defending leisure facilities'.

Campaigners are building for a lobby of the next full council meeting on 27 September.

Ross Saunders