Meaningless Assurances 22/5/08

EDUCATION ASSURANCES MEANINGLESS CLAIMS COUNCILLOR


Councillors were invited to attend a private briefing on the latest stage of education proposals on Thursday 22nd May at County Hall. “One of the key assurances to the public has been that money from the sale of school property would be ‘ring fenced’ for re-investment in education” declared Councillor Melanie Swan who attended the briefing on behalf of the Non– Aligned Group.

She went on to say,“This at the time appeared to be a dangerous promise because informed Members could not see how the current Administration could guarantee it in the face of an unknown future.” Later in the meeting she specifically asked the Director “ Whether it was possible to ring fence these monies throughout the period of change given that there will be a new administration in a year’s time ?” he conceded that it wasn’t.

After the meeting she said, “The subject of re-investment is bound to come up in future consultations so I asked whether people would be told that this so-called ‘commitment’ would only last for the one remaining year that this administration has left in Office. The reply was that giving people this information would be a ‘political’ decision. In other words, Officers can tell people that the money is ring-fenced and politicians will decide whether to tell them that this is only guaranteed for a year! Can we trust them to do this? Indeed, how much trust do Islanders have left for a Leadership with such a trail of broken promises.”

Those Members wishing to obtain an immediate political response to Cllr.Swan's question regarding Ring Fencing were thwarted as Cllr.Wells the responsible Cabinet Member failed to attend. This was because, as he said later "we were talking about individual schools and I don't wish to compromise the process because of personal interests."