Miserable failure for our schools

‘Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive’.

Let us be truthful – you have deceived us – and deceived many of your fellow councillors since June of 2013.

You cannot be surprised that it has left us extremely annoyed and very worried for the well being of today’s students, the students of the future and of equal importance, the damage you are continuing to impose on democratic principles.

In January 2014 you asked our people what they felt was the right way to proceed with secondary education in our town.

You made this request in the full knowledge that you had decided eight months earlier on the course of action you intended to adopt.

You had employed people to guide matters towards college dominance. You had commissioned expensive advisors to mount the argument in your favour.

You withheld their findings from the public because they felt that an 11 to 18 sixth form centre run by a school in Haverfordwest was the best option.

You had formed the 21st Century School Strategy Board. You gave it unprecedented powers. It does not have to stand the scrutiny of anyone, even the Cabinet.

You made sure it consisted only of yourself, your Cabinet member for Education and a Fishguard Councillor (three councillors).

You encouraged the College to buy extra land at Scarrowscant Lane. You sought and gained the support of a Deputy Director of Further Education in the Welsh Office.

All of this before the Public Consultation of February 2014.

In ignorance of this deception – nearly 80% of those who responded in the consultation exercise asked for a state of the art 11 to 18 school.

You allowed the deception to continue and in the autumn came up with five options to be considered. All involving an 11 to 18 school.

At this point you abandoned the need for deception and came clean on what you had been hiding from us all along.

This has led to the public uproar that the Tribal Report had warned you about. But it has become obvious that you do not care about the public.

You believe that you are the only one in step.

However, deception had not finished.

You went on to tell us that: lThe Welsh Office would not allow an 11 to 18 school (now disputed) lThat if we did not agree to the proposal we would lose the £75 million (patently untrue).

lThe Council did not have £1 million pounds to build an access road to the Sir Thomas Picton Site. Recent balance sheets show this to be untrue.

lThat you had the £75 million needed. In fact you have to borrow £50 million.

lThat many councillors did not have the right to speak or vote, yet all of a sudden that has been reversed. Is this because the rules have changed or because we have a new Monitoring Officer?

We feel we have to remind you of your mission statement that begins each of your statutory documents.

It states – Pembrokeshire County Council is responsible for promoting high education standards and for delivering efficient primary and secondary education.

You must admit that you are failing miserably and nowhere is this more so than in the two schools nearest to your office. These are two of the county’s largest school and are only a fifteen minute walk from County Hall.

All you can do is blame the teachers.

We resent this abdication of your responsibility and resent even more the fact that you place the blame for your own neglect on good honest professionals whose future prospects may well be blighted by your indiscriminate attacks.

We urge you to listen to the people and begin the process of developing a state of the art 11 to 18 Secondary School in Haverfordwest.

In doing so we feel sure that you will – at a stroke – turn the opposition of the pupils teachers, governors, parents and towns people into full blooded support.

PETER LEWIS

Haverfordwest