Wirral News letters: March 23

Mar 23 2011 Birkenhead News

Time to listen to the people

COULD you print this letter by way of a little thank you from me to six of our local councillors – namely James Keeley, Lesley Rennie, Sue Taylor, Simon Holbrook, Paul Hayes and Tony Pritchard. I sent them all emails almost three weeks ago voicing my disapproval at the imminent care/respite home closures and telling them briefly about what I went through myself in recent months whilst caring for my ailing father (who passed away in January).

This was done if only to prick their consciences about what they hope to achieve by depriving others who may find themselves in a similar predicament – not being able to put their loved ones in the care of these five threatened establishments due to some idiotic, short-sighted decision to close them to save a paltry £2.5m – and then, whilst doing so, point out to them the vast amounts of money being wasted on non-essential ventures elsewhere. Š

Tellingly, not a single one of these six councillors has felt any urge to contact me back – not even an acknowledgement, despite me sending them a follow up email a week later.

This obviously confirms what I have suspected all along: That amongst the committee exist some who simply do not know how to communicate with the very people who pay the taxes that keep them in their cushy jobs.

Whilst they may not know or even care about what some of us feel or think, it’s high time they started to take notice. After all – they’re put there to serve the public of Wirral -–not slam the door in their faces!

So, thank you very much, dear councillors!

Simon Gray

Address supplied

Education for the very rich

I WAS pleased Esther McVey MP wrote in positive terms about The Reader Organisation charity whose excellent work the Labour Party supported financially when it led the council.

However, I think that she is living in cloud cuckoo land if she believes that the Conservative Party is delivering “opportunities for all” (Wirral News, March 9 and online). How can she claim more resources are going into reading and education for the very young when, as part of her government’s £51m cut to Wirral Council’s budget, 1100 posts are being deleted, with 200 more in the pipeline, including eight posts in children’s centres, 50 staff in libraries and a £4.8m shortfall in the grant Wirral receives for early intervention compared with last year?

When you add on the Tory-LibDem government’s trebling of tuition fees for young people to study at university, the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance for 16-18 year olds and the abolition of the Aim Higher programme, I believe her party’s policies will reduce social mobility and take us back to the days when a good quality education was only available to people from very affluent families.

Councillor Phil Davies

Deputy Leader of the Labour Group, Wirral Council

School’s sad fate

AS A former teacher at Rock Ferry High School I would like to congratulate St John Plessington Catholic College for attaining the notable achievement of becoming the Times Educational Supplement Secondary School of the year.

I personally know some of the teachers who work at this successful school and can vouch for their hard work and professionalism, the school thoroughly deserves its accolade.

However, what I find ironic is that a school less than a mile away from St John’s is to be closed down on its present site and the pupils to be merged with Park High School to form the new Wirral University Academy.

Your newspaper reported recently on the academic results of Wirral schools and provided statistics showing the percentage of pupils achieving the new English Baccalaureate, an indicator used by the government to evaluate a school’s academic success.

Rock Ferry High School outperformed many schools on Wirral using this criteria and I feel that the staff there, who work as enthusiastically and diligently as their counterparts in other Wirral schools, equally deserve plaudits for their success.

Many schoolchildren across Wirral and recent generations owe a degree of debt for the staffs’ endeavours and I hope their work will also be recognised by the wider public of Wirral, especially those involved with education.

In the final months on its present site it is the least we can do to honour the achievements of the colleagues at Rock Ferry who still remain there.

Alongside the pupils I wish them all well for the future.

Frank Lowry

Higher Bebington