Cardiff marches to save schools

SCHOOLS CAMPAIGNERS across Cardiff are marching together on City Hall for the next full council meeting, at 3.30pm on 28 February, in protest at council plans to close, cut back and disrupt eleven schools in the city.

Ross Saunders

Parents and teachers like those at Lansdowne primary school are appalled at the cutbacks and recently demolished the council's flimsy case for closure in consultation meetings.

But campaigners know it will take more than winning the debate to stop these attacks. They have committed themselves to taking their campaign into the elections.

Open land and leisure facilities are also threatened and open-space campaigners from Rumney, Llanrumney and Ely have pledged to join the march with schools campaigns in their areas. So has Llanedeyrn High School, which is still fighting closure despite huge improvements in the education it delivers.

The campaign has already put huge pressure on the main political parties in the areas where closures are threatened.

The next few months promise to make it a Cardiff-wide issue. Labour and Plaid Cymru politicians have ignored opportunities to halt the Lib Dems' plans in the schools subcommittee and at consultation level.

More and more people see, from their own experiences, the grim effect of the absence in Cardiff of a political party that fights for education and public services.