Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Forward Planning FAIL!

A head teacher is being paid £60,000 a year to run a school that has not yet been built in a town with no pupils.
Whoops!
Susan Vint was hired last month to take charge of Lakeview Lower School in the new town development of The Wixams, three miles south of Bedford. Because of planning delays and the economic crisis, however, only a handful of houses have been built on the 750-acre site and only three people have moved in.
They’d better get breedin’ double-quick!
Matthew Sinclair, research director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is absolutely outrageous. This headmistress should never have been hired when there wasn’t a school for her to run.”
Oh, that’s such an old fashioned way of looking at things! Haven’t we got away from all that hackneyed ‘supply/demand’ paradigm…?
Critics said that Bedfordshire council had yet to tender for a company to build the school, and it would not open until late 2010.
Reached for comment, a council spokesman said: “So what…? It’s not coming out of our own pockets, is it? The taxpayer’s buying…!”

No, actually, he didn’t, but it was certainly the subtext. The council are still denying reality:
However, the council insists that Mrs Vint would welcome new pupils in September.
Where…? In her living room?
at

5 comments:

  1. Letters From A Tory17 February 2009 at 10:02

    Would she really welcome some pupils? I'm sure she's loving the extra few weeks off, what a treat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Old BE17 February 2009 at 10:15

    I could do that job! I might only last until the school is built, though.

    And Gordon says he has "achieved" savings of £25bn. I bet I could find £200bn more.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous17 February 2009 at 15:33

    How many other chalked up Labour "successes" in the past few years, are ALSO just counting ghost proposals that end up as this one does?

    In previous days Regimental colonels used to claim the rations AND PAY of men killed in battle months if not years ago. Looks like new Labour does not TOTALY ignore army tradition.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Stan17 February 2009 at 16:44

    This demonstrates the problem with central planning deciding what local people "need" from their distant ivory towers. We need to get the power and responsibility for deciding local issues back to local people.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JuliaM17 February 2009 at 16:53

    "How many other chalked up Labour "successes" in the past few years, are ALSO just counting ghost proposals that end up as this one does?"

    A lot, I'm betting...

    "We need to get the power and responsibility for deciding local issues back to local people."

    Call-Me-Dave was waffling about localism yesterday; it remains to be seen if it'll turn into reality, though...

    ReplyDelete