MP Greg Hands' Response to School Closure Plan
Councillors' local connections branded "scandal"
Greg Hands, MP
Left Foot Forward, a "blog for progressives" says that two councillors involved in the decision to approve Sulivan Primary's closure - Nick Botterill, leader of the Council, and Georgie Cooney, cabinet member for education - have serious questions to answer about personal interests they may have in closing the school.
Under the heading "Scandal at Sulivan Primary" the blog says that included on Cllr Botterill's register of interests is a directorship at Active Learning Childcare where three and four year-olds, like those who go to Sulivan’s nursery, are entitled to 15 hours free early child care. That money is paid by the government to the nursery provider.
This, says the blog, means that Sulivan is a direct competitor to Active Learning Childcare, the Fulham branch of which stands to gain from Sulivan’s closure.
In recent years, Hammersmith and Fulham Council have twice refused to allow Sulivan to expand their nursery intake to match the one and a half form entries in other years, despite the nursery having a waiting list and the blog says this refusal to allow Sulivan to expand its nursery provision would have benefitted Active Learning Childcare by limiting the direct competition posed by Sulivan’s nursery.
When the Council voted last week to close Sulivan, Cllr Georgie Cooney confirmed that she is good friends with one of the founders of Fulham Boys School, Arabella Northey. However, she said she was only disclosing their friendship in the interests of transparency and that it was not a material conflict of interest.
A council spokesman has confirmed that Cllr Cooney took legal advice on whether she would have to publically declare the connection.
You can read Left Foot Forward's full story here.
Stephen Cowan says: " It would be unwise for the Conservative Administration to play down this call-in or try to bulldoze the process through. It would also be a huge concern and raise questions about their credibility if the six Conservative councillors on the Education and Children's Services Select Committee (one of whom is the Conservatives' newly selected prospective parliamentary candidate for Hammersmith) failed to properly take up their responsibilities to look into and act on these matters."
January 29, 2014
