Education Sec Gove ignored experts to approve playing-field sell-off
mark at tlio.org.uk
mark at tlio.org.uk
Fri Aug 17 07:08:36 BST 2012
Michael Gove overruled experts to sell school playing fields
Education secretary ignored advice from panel five times over 15
months - more than in the previous nine years
by Jo Adetunji
The Guardian
Fri 17th August 2012
Ref:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/aug/17/michael-gove-school-playing-fields
Michael Gove has gone against expert advice from his own independent
panel several times over the sale of school playing fields.
The School Playing Fields Advisory Panel has opposed the sell-off of
such facilities five times over the past 15 months, but sales were
still pushed through.
Ministers must approve any sales of playing fields, and despite a
promise in the coalition agreement to protect them, figures show that
disposals continue to rise.
The number of fields approved for sale by ministers since 2010 is also
much higher than the government originally disclosed, according to
figures seen by the Daily Telegraph. It said the panel received 35
applications between May and July this year, 30 of which were approved
by ministers, two rejected and one withdrawn, while two remain
outstanding. The decisions were mostly taken by education minister
Lord Hill on behalf of Gove.
The government had said it approved the disposal of 21 school playing
fields since 2010.
The panel is legally bound to make a recommendation on each sell-off
and the documents show Gove ignored five recommendations not to sell
between February last year and this July – more than in the previous
nine years.
Labour's shadow education secretary, Stephen Twigg, accused the
government of running a secret scheme to sell off playing fields. "The
fact that Michael Gove has ignored the advice of independent experts
and ploughed ahead with selling off school playing fields shows he is
shamefully out of touch," Twigg said. "He also appears to have failed
to disclose at least another 10 school playing field sell-offs when
responding to a Freedom of Information request. This is misleading and
incompetent at the very least.
"[He] must now come clean and explain what appears to be a secret
programme to sell off school playing fields."
Labour said it had also written to Chris Wormald, permanent secretary
at the Department for Education and Gove's most senior civil servant,
about the education secretary's apparent dismissal of expert advice.
Among the cases in which the panel was overruled included playing
fields at Woodhouse Middle School in Staffordshire, at Clarborough
primary school in Nottinghamshire and Elliott School in Putney,
south-west London, where fields are being sold off to pay for a major
refurbishment.
Critics have also warned that school sports fields are in danger after
Gove relaxed government regulations that set out a minimum requirement
of outdoor space that schools must provide for team games.
The rule change, which was made just days before the Olympics, has led
many to fear a wholescale selloff of playing fields and other outdoor
spaces and the failure to promote grassroots sports as part of the
Olympics legacy.
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