What future for Churchstanton School - your views count

I AM carrying out a public opinion survey in Churchinford and the surrounding area to ask what people think about the future siting of the village school.
I hope nobody misunderstands this message and that they do not think I am suggesting the school is under any threat at the moment.
It is an excellent small, rural school serving a wide catchment area from its idyllic location and engendering passionate support from parents and other local people.
Yet, we stand at a crossroads regarding its future.
Somerset County Council has started closing small schools such as in Blagdon Hill and in Nynehead to save money, and we know that other schools are under threat.
We currently face a situation where the county will not commit the funding Churchstanton needs in the long-term for permanent facilities because it does not believe the site is sustainable in the long-term future.
At the same time, an opportunity to develop a state-of-the-art new school in Churchinford village centre has been on offer, but this could soon be lost.
Developers who have planning permission to build some new homes on the Newberry Farm land could facilitate such a new school at comparatively low cost.
The wider benefits would be greater footfall in the village, bringing new vitality and financial support for facilities such as the shop, Post Office, and pub.
But there is a strong feeling the school’s magnificent rural site offers extra-curricular benefits to children and should not be given up until it really does have to happen - although by then the parish could lose its school completely if funding for a new one was not available.
There has never been a proper public consultation on what people really think about this subject.
It has divided opinions among the parish councillors and it has already generated heated discussion at a public meeting.
As the Conservative candidate for Blackdown and Wellington East in the Somerset County Council elections, I want to hear your views in a calm and collected manner.
I will then be best-placed to represent the wishes of the community once elected to County Hall, as opposed to allowing the wishes of finance-driven officials to decide the issue.
Some survey forms are being delivered door to door, and some have been placed in the village shop. A straw poll is also being held here on my website.
I strongly believe in the value of rural facilities and services, rather than looking only at their cost.
I have a track record of supporting rural schools, as I was the only local councillor to actually stand up against the closure of Blagdon Hill School, support the staff and governors, and attend the County Executive meetings where the Lib Dems made their decisions.
In Churchinford, I opposed the Post Office closure and also served on the voluntary committee which set up the Community Interest Company to create a new community shop.
Whether or not I am elected to the County Council on June 4, I will make sure that the views which come out of this survey are made known to the powers that be.
After reading my survey form, the school’s headmaster, Simon Mills, has voiced his concern to me that some parents may misread it as suggesting that the school is at risk of being closed, and he is naturally anxious to allay any such concerns.
That is why I am also separately writing letters to parents at the school to reassure them that I am not suggesting there is any immediate concern which should alarm them.

• The photograph above shows John Thorne outside Churchstanton School.

Manifesto pledges which just don't stack up

MANIFESTO season is upon us, the time of year, or, rather the time of the quadrennial, when local politicians make all sorts of claims about what they have achieved for you during the past four years and what more they will do in the next four years.
All you have to do is give them your vote and everything will be okay.
I never cease to be amazed at how these manifestos and claims of achievements can twist the truth to a point where what is being said is unrecognisable when actually compared to what was done.
One local politician who comes to mind must be nothing less than a superhero if they have single-handedly done all that they claim.
In fact, you wouldn’t need any of the other councillors at all, as they are so wonderful.
In truth, though, a single councillor in the political system we have at the moment can only work as part of a team and should share collective responsibility for both achievements and failures.
That is one of the reasons why you won’t find me saying that I have single-handedly saved, for instance, a phone box or a Post Office, as it wouldn’t be possible to do it on my own.
What I will say, is that personally I have done what I can and that it is the Conservatives (plural) who have achieved it.
Take the much-trumpeted zero council tax increase at Taunton Deane Borough Council as an example.
The credit for this rests with the Conservative opposition group of councillors, although most of the work was done by our group leader Councillor John Williams.
It was his alternative budget which was cherry picked by the Lib Dem administration on the very day they were proposing a 2.7 per cent council tax rise – with the effect that they then agreed with the Conservative zero increase proposal and put that to us at the evening budget meeting.
I played my part as a Conservative councillor by inputting to the alternative budget, but I’m not claiming any superhero powers and saying I did it alone so therefore you should vote for me.
Looking at the manifestos which have been published, it is interesting to read the ‘key facts’ the Lib Dems want you to remember when you go to vote, and then to compare them with what the ‘real facts’ are.
Lib Dem ‘Key fact’ – they ‘will continue to keep council tax increases among the lowest of any county’.
True fact – they have already doubled your council tax during their reign of power and are now so worried about losing control that they are trying to appear to be matching the Conservative pledge to ‘freeze’ your council tax.
Lib Dem ‘Key fact’ – they ‘have plans currently being actioned to invest in jobs and businesses’.
True fact – they have just been forced to publicly admit their claim to be investing £5 million in the Somerset Economic Recovery Plan was a crude spin doctor deception because all but £280,000 is money from other organisations or was already in the budget.
Lib Dem ‘Key fact’ – they have achieved the highest recycling of any county.
True fact – they have broken their promise to give us plastics and cardboard recycling and it will be 2011 before most people actually get it, if at all.
Other examples of bending the truth can be found in the Lib Dem 2009- 2013 manifesto published on their website.
It claims, for instance, they will ‘protect village schools’.
Well, we are in the middle of a savage Lib Dem cost-cutting exercise which is closing village schools such as Blagdon Hill and Nynehead and others, and leaving many others under threat.
Only Conservative councillors, including myself, have fought against these closures.
The Lib Dems claim, for instance, not to have closed any special schools – but they don’t say it is not for want of trying and that if Mark Formosa, the Conservative Parliamentary candidate, had not battled them in Wiveliscombe, then Kingsmead School would have lost its special needs unit.
They claim credit for the successful 'Handyperson Service' – it is actually called the Handyman Service, which shows how politically correct they cannot help being – but they don’t give any credit to the Taunton Deane Conservative administration which actually started it some years ago.
They claim to have eased traffic congestion on the Silk Mills road by building a railway bridge.
But in truth they have ruined the good work of installing the bridge by creating a mess of traffic light-controlled junctions and different vehicle lanes which now cause as much, if not more, congestion than before.
They promised to roll out 120 new transport schemes and to improve road safety, but they have done nothing to progress a new railway station for Wellington, or a northern distributor road for the town, while we have seen those yellow signs on 'Red Routes' advising of safety amendments to come in 2008 amended to read '2009' - and we are still waiting.
I could go on, but I suspect few people have even read this far.

Speak up now to help save Blagdon Hill School from closure

THE governors of Blagdon Hill Primary School continue to have my full support in their fight to save the village school from closure under Somerset County Council spending cuts.
I visited the school again yesterday with Mark Formosa, who is the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane and who is passionate about the need to maintain small schools.
We are urgently calling for everybody in the local community to send their comments to the county council before the public consultation process ends on Friday, June 6.
Interestingly, Mark discovered by coincidence that as a youngster he went to the same school in Cornwall as Blagdon’s chairman of governors, Jonathan Langdon.
The county council say they are talking about the quality of education in small rural schools - but we all know they are really interested in cutting money from a budget they have mismanaged despite doubling our Council Tax in 10 years.
Now, rural residents are being threatened with paying the price of the county’s blundering through the closure of village schools not just here on the Blackdowns, but across many areas of Somerset.
Blagdon Hill provides quality education for the children who attend it, and the small class sizes mean pupils can receive a high ratio of one-to-one attention from their teachers.
Pupils receive excellent sports tuition, every child goes swimming every week of every term, every child plays a musical instrument, there is a computer in class for every two pupils rather than a once-a-week session in an IT suite, and children with special needs are able to make huge progress in such an environment.
All this is reflected in Ofsted inspection reports which rate the school and its teaching environment as good, good, good.
Yet, the county council are contemplating closing Blagdon Hill School and they are already putting off potential pupils by not telling parents moving to the area that the school is there.
I was extremely impressed by the strength of local feelings which came out of the recent open meeting and drop-in sessions, which I think rather took the county council by surprise.
They were gravely mistaken if they thought Blagdon Hill residents would be a soft touch, and I hope that if enough people put sufficiently robust arguments to them before the close of consultation on Friday, then we may have a chance of stopping this closure.
It does not make sense to be closing any school at a time when schools in Taunton are already over-subscribed and we face thousands more homes being built in the town with a huge influx of new residents and their children.

• The photograph outside Blagdon Hill Primary School shows (left to right) acting head teacher David Hawkins, chairman of governors Jonathan Langdon, Mark Formosa, parent-governor Jayne Simpson, and Blackdown ward Deane Councillor John Thorne.