Seckford expect Beccles Free School ‘approval’ by the end of May - everyone else wants it stopped

Petition against Beccles Free School

In an article in today’s EDP about the proposed Beccles Free School the Seckford Foundation are quoted as saying:

“The final approval for the opening of the proposed free schools is expected by the end of the month.”

This stands in sharp contrast to the views of local Waveney Conservative MP Peter Aldous who said:

“The DFE said they will let me know as soon as a decision is made and I have had no indication at all.”

In my original submission on the whole proposals I did say it was important it was made promptly and I do think it should have been made by now.”

If the bid does go ahead Aldous is likely to join a long list of casualties that will be caused by the free school opening by losing his Waveney seat at the next General Election.

The articles then goes on to list everyone else, all of whom think the proposal in Beccles should be stopped. Jeremy Rowe, Head of the 400 year old Sir John Leman High School and five fellow local Headteachers, the local Conservative County Councillor and Suffolk County Council Leader Mark Bee, and large numbers of local parents.

They list of opponents seems to stop only when the article runs out of space.

But Graham Watson Bursar of the £13,500 a year Woodbridge School and Director of the Seckford Foundation stands alone against the this and by doing so appears to be arrogantly insisting that he knows better than local people, their MP, their County Councillor, local head teachers and thousands of local people.

This is the same man who told me at the consultation in Stanton that he did not know much about local schools in Suffolk and admitted that the “demand” at Beccles amounted to expressions of interest of 107 across three school years.

Seckford seem confident they can use money and power against reason and the will of the people but as local campaigner Ian Goodyer says:

I hold out hope because I think they have clearly lost the argument on every single measure.

UPDATE: The original news article has been mysteriously removed, please see this Blogpost you can still read a copy at WikiSuffolk