CHEATED - Labour defy democracy and will close Wisewood

5.39.12pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 25th Jul 2007

Labour have cheated local people

Sheffield City Council has voted to close Wisewood and Myers Grove Schools and build a new school on the Myers Grove site. Despite a decision already being taken in June to drop the plan the proposal went to council again after the controlling Labour group refused to accept the rejection. The vote was 43 for the merger and 40 against. Labour and the new Sheffield Group (Tory Cllr Smith and Independent Cllr Davis) teamed up to out vote the Liberal Democrats and Greens who supported local people, opposed the merger and where in favour of delivering new schools for both communities.

Cllr Paul Scriven, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, said: -

"Today's decision has cheated all those who campaigned to keep their local schools open. This is not just a blow for those campaigning to save their local schools, but it is a blow to the concept of local democracy in our city."

"After the elections this council made a clear decision to keep both schools open and submit a new plan to Government in order to deliver an excellent education through two schools. In our opinion this would have also delivered the best education possible for our young people in the area. However, this was never followed through."

"The Labour Party refused to accept the rejection of their plan and they have manipulated the system to get their own way. It's clear that it's the accountants, bureaucrats and government officials who have won, but it's children and future generations who have lost out."

"I was disappointed to see that the new Sheffield Group sided with Labour. This gives Labour one more vote than they had last time, which gives Labour the edge on this issue in the council chamber."

"I'm sure that the campaign to save Wisewood and provide two community schools will continue as the local communities adversely affected will not accept this unfair ruling. We will now go away and look at the options of bringing about a two school solution, working towards the commitment we made to local people in the last local elections."