South Wales Evening Post - 2 May 2007
Swansea's Lib Dem led coalition has been attacked over claims it is not doing enough to tackle the problem of surplus school places.
School governors have voiced fears that teaching jobs could be lost in schools across the city.
They say falling pupil numbers are hitting school budgets with teachers' posts likely to be axed to try to get them back in the black.
Ian Ross, an Uplands Labour member, said falling pupil numbers were flagged up in a 2005 council briefing note, but not enough had been done since.
He said: "It amazes me the Lib-Dem administration so negligently ignored its own briefing note.
"They have taken no action whatsoever and as a result we are now seeing schools struggling to balance their books with the likelihood of teaching redundancies across the whole of Swansea."
Councillor Mike Day, the cabinet member for education, said surplus places had been cut and that more work was planned to tackle the problem.
But Mr Ross claims too little has been done and that the Lib Dems have shied away from tough decisions.
He pointed to the U-turn over plans to merge Dylan Thomas and Bishop Gore comprehensives in the face of a fierce campaign from angry parents.
Last week Peggy George, the chairwoman of governors at Bishop Gore, claimed 11 out of 14 comprehensives had big budget deficits, some in the red by more than £200,000.She said falling pupil numbers meant less cash for schools and with teachers' wages representing around 75 per cent of the budget they were most likely to feel the squeeze.Mr Ross, who is also a governor of a city primary school, said more had to be done and called on Councillor Day to take prompt action.
He said: "All the Liberal Democrats in Swansea have offered is a piecemeal stop-go approach and even that is reversed as soon as there is any opposition."
Councillor Day defended the council's stance on falling school rolls.
He said: "Falling school rolls affect all local authorities regardless of who is in control.
"Redundancies are an unfortunate consequence.
"Swansea's administration has been consulting on issues of school reorganisation and has responded to comments made.
"School closures have taken place and many surplus places have been removed.
"It is a shame Labour are making political capital of a serious issue such as education."
Councillor Day said discussions had taken place locally and AMs had been invited but that Labour AMs had not attended.
He said: "If they are so concerned on education, we must ask why they have not come along."
Rhys Williams, of NUT Cymru, said that it was completely against compulsory redundancies.He said: "We see this as a waste of know-how, talent, experience. It is also the opposite of managing change."
Mr Williams said Swansea Council should be foreseeing things like falling school rolls and called on it to do more to avoid compulsory redundancies.
He said: "Falling rolls is a problem across Wales.
"It is a chance for smaller classrooms, but it is also a chance for a responsible authority to use its services to make sure if there is a vacant post in another school that it can be filled by someone who has to leave their school.
"Some local authorities are better at this than others. We call on Swansea to do all they can to avoid compulsory redundancies."
