Rob Wilson is once again playing politics with the hopes of East Reading parents”

READING & DISTRICT LABOUR PARTY MEDIA RELEASE 29 April 2012 John Ennis : “Rob Wilson is once again playing politics with the hopes of East Reading parents” John Ennis, Labour’s Lead Councillor for Children’s Services, has attacked Rob Wilson’s hints in the press about another new school “focusing on an English Baccalaureate for 11-year-olds upwards” as “once again playing politics with the hopes of East Reading parents” after the truth has come out about the technical academy the MP has been promoting on the Alfred Sutton site. “Mr Wilson’s last scheme was presented as a University Technical College for East Reading,” Cllr. Ennis points out, “but then the University withdrew, then it became clear the catchment had a fifteen-mile radius and the college was very little to do with East Reading, and then they admitted it could only be funded if developers built on the rest of the Alfred Sutton playing fields. “In the course of the consultation on that scheme, local people have been told that the Government refused to fund an 11-19 school, and has only bought enough land for an 14-19 school, so Mr Wilson needs to explain what’s changed, why does he think the Government will now fund something it was refusing to fund last week? Could it be just that Mr Wilson is trying to boost his party’s chances in the Borough elections, or does he really have new money to put on the table? “It’s time for straight talking, and I have emailed Mr Wilson to say that if has anything real to offer Reading children I would be more than happy to meet him to discuss how we can take it forward together. If I don’t hear I will draw my own conclusions.”