Cardiff schools campaign grows

FOURTEEN CARDIFF schools now face cuts and closures from the Liberal council, with many more set to join them.

Ross Saunders

Links are developing between some campaigns, including Lansdowne primary school, Llanedeyrn and Llanrumney.

A meeting on 23 January in Canton Community Centre at 7.30pm will trade campaigning ideas and plan joint action to defeat the council's programme. Lansdowne already plan to march on City Hall on 24 January at 3.30pm and could be joined by many other schools.

Cardiff parents beat council cuts in 2006, photo Socialist Party Wales

A united campaign, similar to the one which defeated these plans in 2006, is starting to develop. It could, if focussed on exerting maximum pressure on councillors, repeat the victory of two years ago.

If local councillors only oppose closures in their own wards while backing all the others, then all the closures will go ahead.

A joined-up Save Our Schools Campaign pledging to fight all attacks on Cardiff schools could extend pressure to all 72 councillors.

And if councillors refuse to act to save schools then parents and campaigners should stand against them in the May elections as Save Our Schools candidates.