Kent County Council has let slip any veil of democratic accountability to the people of Cheriton, Kent. Its education committee supported the proposal by the director of education, Patrick Leeson, to close Pent Valley School, despite huge public opposition.
Parents and students, including many members of the Nepalese community in Cheriton filled a 49 seater coach to lobby Kent County councillors who are members of the education cabinet.
We are campaigning against the threat by Kent County Council to close our local authority run secondary school as reported in last week’s issue. Claire, who is one of the mums, prepared a brief presentation in opposition to the threat to close the school but despite an understanding that she would be allowed to speak briefly was refused permission by the chair of the committee!
A supporter of the campaign, despite repeated demands from the chair to shut up, said that the committee were discourteous and impolite in refusing to allow Claire speakers’ rights. He demanded the council use their reserves as a loan to keep our school open.
We believe that as part of the campaign there may be grounds for a legal challenge to the procedure. The campaign continues!
