Wilson should stop being grubby and come clean about what is going on with the sale of the land at Crescent Road!

As Lead Councillor for Education and Children's Services I attended the Consultation meeting on the proposals for a new Technical Academy for 14 to 19 year old pupils. I reiterated our minority Labour Administration policy that we will work with any politician, council of any political persuasion, local MP and educationalist to achieve a school in East Reading for 11-19 year pupils.

What we heard was some excellent proposals on working with local businesses and private companies to obtain vocational qualifications and apprenticeships. Whilst this is very much welcome for East Reading children there were some widespread concerns expressed by the overwhelming majority of people attending the consultation meeting.

Firstly there are objections and concerns of building on the green space for community use at the Crescent Road site. This Labour council has protected this green space for years and if re-elected we will continue to do so. Rachael Chrisp, Labour candidate for Park Ward raised this concern recently and was rebuffed by Rob Wilson MP. In the Reading Chronicle website the sentence below denies the plan of developers building on the site, including the green space.

"OCVC has also dismissed suggestions from Reading Labour Party that it is planning to build housing on the playing fields in Crescent Road. Reading East MP Rob Wilson, who brought the stakeholders together, accused Labour of "grubbing around in the dirt for votes".

Where was Wilson tonight to hear from Sally Dicketts, Oxford and Cherwell Valley College Chief Executive, who made the statement about the remainder of the site being "sold to a developer". We are not grubbing around in the dirt for votes but we are concerned about the loss of a major open green space for use by the people of East Reading. Local Labour politicians were there tonight to listen to the views of local people and to express our concerns at the limitations of the proposals. Why wasn't the Reading East MP in attendance to hear the widespread opposition to his proposals of a 14-19 technical academy?

Wilson should stop being grubby and come clean about what is going on with the sale of the land at Crescent Road!

Reading Borough Council very much welcomes a new school but we fundamentally believe that we cannot miss a golden opportunity to build a school for East Reading children that will provide much needed spaces in the future as by 2015 we will have problems finding places for every child wanting a good secondary education.