A STAFFORD campaigner standing for county council seat has called for a delay to plans to overhaul school support services to let the public decide who should run them.
Maureen Compton, Labour County Council candidate for Stafford Central has joined Labour and UNISON activists across Staffordshire to fight proposals to sell off Education Support Services in what she called “a £4 billion cut-and-run.”
“We will do all we can to make sure that the Conservative-led County Council doesn’t sell off Education,” she said. “This is a privatisation that the people of Staffordshire do not want and do not need.”
Along with other Labour county council candidates Ms Compton will be raising a petition calling on the council to halt the project until after the 2013 local elections and allow the public to voice their own opinion on who they wanted to run services.
“The Conservatives are rushing this through before the local Elections,” she said. “The people deserve a proper say.
“If we can force a delay of just a couple of weeks we will be able to let the people and not Tory politicians decide who runs hugely important services like support for children with special educational needs.”
Services set to be affected by the new joint venture proposed under the terms of the project include outdoor education, cleaning, careers guidance, catering, learning technologies (IT), grounds services, special educational needs and performing arts.
