There was a fairly good turnout on Monday night for the public meeting at Ventnor Middle School. We counted at least 50 people in attendance, which we believe is a big rise from other meetings around the Island.
The meeting lasted just over the hour and a half and was hosted by two council officers, Keith Simmonds and Chris Veiler-Porter.
There were many questions asked following the presentation, but below we focus on those asked by us in relation to the Statutory Notices (SN).
What is a Statutory Notice?
It was explained that the SN gives full details of if and when each school will close and what will happen to the building, the staff and the pupils. It also covers the transport provision which we’ll cover in the future.
All SNs will be issued in March 2009.
Following this, there will be a 6 week period for public comment – which must be made in writing to Alex Moffat, Schools Project Manager, County Hall, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 1UD or email to [email protected] .
After that there is a two month period, in which time the council has to determine whether or not to implement each of the SNs.
If no decision is made during that period, the decision reverts to the National Schools Adjudicator and will be dealt with off the Island.
Legal Implications of SNs
Given that David Pugh, Leader of the Council, has publicly stated that we, as voters, can either vote the Tories in or out of office next year based on their school policies, and that the SN periods are very close to the proposed elections next year, we asked the officers whether or not, a new political party/body — if the Tories were voted out — would be legally required to follow through with the SNs.
First off we were told that if a new body were to win the elections, they would have to deal with each SN very quickly, post-election.
“It is very tight” were the words that Keith Simmonds used.
What we really wanted to know, was whether the new administration would have to follow through with proposed closures, so we re-phrased the question and asked again,“Would a new governing body be legally required to carry out the SNs or could they scrap the whole thing?”
“Noooooo,”, we were rather patronisingly told, “the councillors would have to deal with the closures on an individual basis. They will be legally obligated to address each SN.”
Now had we left it there and not carried on with our questioning, we suspect that many members of the audience might’ve just heard the word ‘No’ and taken from that, that a new administration would not be able to scrape the proposed changes.
Not content with the answer, we persisted.
“But they could say No?” we asked again.
“They could make a decision about each SN,” came the reply.
We were beginning to wonder why they wouldn’t actually answer the question with a straight yes or no – and other members of the audience called out for them to do just that.
“Give her a yes or no answer,” they cried.
“We have to be very careful about how we answer.” revealed Chris Veiler-Porter.
We tried again, “I understand that they will have to deal with each notice issued. That’s common sense. What I’m asking is if the Tories get voted out, will the next group be legally required to continue with the decision that has been made?”
Mr Simmonds replied “When the SNs are published, as we’ve said, they are legally required to make a decision on that notice, and that could be to implement or not.”
Finally an answer
If you missed it in that last sentence — and we could understand why you would — the answer was that whoever is in power after the elections can decide NOT to implement the SNs if they wish to do so.
I.e. if they want to carry on with the schools as they are now (improving every year we’re told), then they can scrap the closures.
Phew!
Just to be clear on the timescales, we also asked, “And we are being assured that the election is going to take place before the end of the period for SNs?”
“That was the indication from what was said.”
Why battle for an answer?
Why did it take over 10 minutes to answer a simple yes or no question?
Why did we have to ask the question FIVE times before getting a straight answer?
With a disgraceful runaround like this, it’s hard not to think that council officers are deliberately trying to confuse the public – and their comment, “We have to be very careful about how we answer,” is very revealing.
Sadly it leaves us with even less faith in the schools re-organisation, if the officers in charge refuse to answer a simple question with a yes or no answer.
