Tesco / ASDA !!!

[Maria]

Interesting that they are having windows replaced today-waste of money if going to sell?

[Maria]

See below received from Ms Cassidy to my request for information.

Dear Ms Penny

 

Statement from the Chair of Governors

 

Thank you for your recent email.  The Chair of Governors, Lawrie Grant, has issued the following statement on behalf of Cheadle & Marple Sixth Form College regarding the possible sale of land at its Hibbert Lane campus, Marple.

 

“The current 1930s buildings at Hibbert Lane are very expensive, inefficient and inappropriate for education in the 21st century.  Their annual maintenance costs continue to escalate – money which should be invested in direct teaching for the benefit of the students.

 

Another factor is the announcement by the current government of a severe reduction in the funding of sixth form colleges.  In addition we have also seen a serious rise in VAT.

 

There is no doubt that the Marple campus of Cheadle & Marple Sixth Form College is in need of urgent investment and we must sell the land at Hibbert Lane to afford this investment.  Who will buy the site and what use the planners will ultimately approve is up to them.

We can make no assumption as to who the ultimate purchaser will be.  No contracts have been signed and any decision is subject to the approval of the SMBC Planning Committee.  The College, being a public body, must always act in the best interests of our students and is duty bound to accept the highest offer without fear or favour.

 

We must also stress that there will be no impact on the excellent provision of outstanding education that we provide for our students and that it is strictly business as usual.”

 

Please also note that the College is an incorporated body and unlike a school is not funded by the local authority.

 

Should you have any further queries in this regard do please let me know.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Christina Cassidy

Principal

[Duke Fame]

I think you said in our last text that you followed the thread on here so this is the only way of getting a message to you.
All I want to say is please contact me again you could really  help the people of MARPLE  I think you may have been concerned that we would share your identity or contact details with others but I can assure you that we would do everything  to protect your identity   I provided you with some information in one of our lasts texts, I hope probably will change  to Yes    please help us ?

I know who Maria is, I'll ask her to make herself known.

[Duke Fame]

Being naive, what is staggering in this whole process maybe the role that an (unlucky ?) thirteen unelected people can have in changing the face of Marple, irrevocably. And the lack of power in local and national politics to take on the aggressive supermarkets.

Who are these 'thirteen unelected people' mentioned above?

Whoops my mistake, apologies. I was trying, without success to convey the notion that unlike local, or national politicians the committee, whose members may well be sympathetic to the aims of Marple in Action, are not accountable to the populous of Marple. But doubtless will be torn between the needs of the college, present and future, and the need to consider Marple's present and the effect of any decision on it's future.

Perhaps I should throw the spade out of the hole, as my logic seems to be awry.

I think that's a red herring, yes there are unelected people who are going their jobs in getting the best deal they can for the college. Whilst tehre is a chance of them selling hte site for £12m they will hope to do so, & rightly so.

It's for elected people to then put the checks and balances into motion to ensure anydevelopment is not going to be detrimental to the voters of Marple.

[acoustician]

I think we agree that the totally inept labour government completely mismanaged a spending program (yet again). It's hugely hypocritical of that party and it's deluded supporters to critiques the current governments remedial action.

I think were getting massively off topic.

Wiki on LSC if you're interested.

[Basementlife]

Being naive, what is staggering in this whole process maybe the role that an (unlucky ?) thirteen unelected people can have in changing the face of Marple, irrevocably. And the lack of power in local and national politics to take on the aggressive supermarkets.

Who are these 'thirteen unelected people' mentioned above?

Whoops my mistake, apologies. I was trying, without success to convey the notion that unlike local, or national politicians the committee, whose members may well be sympathetic to the aims of Marple in Action, are not accountable to the populous of Marple. But doubtless will be torn between the needs of the college, present and future, and the need to consider Marple's present and the effect of any decision on it's future.

Perhaps I should throw the spade out of the hole, as my logic seems to be awry.

[Miss Marple]

I think you said in our last text that you followed the thread on here so this is the only way of getting a message to you.
All I want to say is please contact me again you could really  help the people of MARPLE  I think you may have been concerned that we would share your identity or contact details with others but I can assure you that we would do everything  to protect your identity   I provided you with some information in one of our lasts texts, I hope probably will change  to Yes    please help us ?

[Duke Fame]

I appear to have confused you, Duke - my aplogies.
1. About three years ago, shortly before its demise, the LSC got itself into a mess by promising capital fundind which it did not actually have. There was no overspening, however - the promises were withdrawn and various college had to abandon their building projects, as Acoustician has conifrimed on this thread.
2. Entirely unrelated to that cock up by the LSC, last year the newly-elected government scrapped the previous government's school (not college) building scheme called Building Schools for the future.
That's all.

I think we agree that the totally inept labour government completely mismanaged a spending program (yet again). It's hugely hypocritical of that party and it's deluded supporters to critiques the current governments remedial action.

[Dave]

I appear to have confused you, Duke - my aplogies.
1. About three years ago, shortly before its demise, the LSC got itself into a mess by promising capital fundind which it did not actually have. There was no overspening, however - the promises were withdrawn and various college had to abandon their building projects, as Acoustician has conifrimed on this thread.
2. Entirely unrelated to that cock up by the LSC, last year the newly-elected government scrapped the previous government's school (not college) building scheme called Building Schools for the future.
That's all.

[Miss Marple]

Apologies thought it would be obvious-the proposed sale of the site to a retailer as the preferred option.

.  Cheers Maria for searching out information !

[Duke Fame]

I may be able to throw a bit of light on the issue of the funding application by camsfc to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in 2008. AFAIK it wasn't really a missed deadline at all. What happened was that the LSC suddenly discovered they had massively over-committed capital funding to college building projects all over the country. That is, they promised far more money than they actually had! It was quite a scandal at the time - there were many colleges whose project planning was at an advanced stage, who were suddenly told they couldn't have any capital funding after all! I gather Aquinas only just got under the wire. This was all very sudden, and until then there was no reason for any college to believe that funds were about to run out. So I think the cock up, if there was one, was probably at the LSC.   

Gosh, so when you are blaming the lack of funding on school & college building on the current coalition government you were actually saying something you knew not to be true to make cheap political capital. In reality, it was yet another example of out of control spending by the Scottish PM's government. Tssk tssk.

[Miss Marple]

There will be some meetings taking place very soon when a large enough venue can be found which can accommodate 100 - 150 people at a time.  MARPLE in action are aware due to the high volume of phone calls to the action line that the community wants to become involved and active   A  series of meetings will be held  whereby we can organise ourselves into action groups, there is a wealth of knowledge and skills out there which we need if we are to succeed.
  There are lots of things going on behind the scenes and although it looks like its all gone quiet believe me it has not.  There are lots of people doing the ground work and finding things out which are beneficial to our cause.   One of our main aims is to hold a mass rally in the Memorial Park and to invite Ms Cassidy, Mr Hubert and the  GOVENOURS (invites have been sent to ask for their attendance)  Andrew Stunall when back off his holidays this week will be contacting MARPLE In Action to inform us of his availability and of course all our elected councillors have been asked to attend but to date only three have replied. 
We did collect email addresses at the last Area committee meeting so we will be contacting you via email to ask if you will attend a meeting, we will also leaflet drop again , and will be relying on word of mouth.  So please bear with us this is just the start.   If you have not given an email address or contact telephone number please do so now either by a personal message via the forum or contact the action line on 07790419494. Together we are strong ! Please become involved 

[Smithy166]

Being naive, what is staggering in this whole process maybe the role that an (unlucky ?) thirteen unelected people can have in changing the face of Marple, irrevocably. And the lack of power in local and national politics to take on the aggressive supermarkets.

Who are these 'thirteen unelected people' mentioned above?

I think he is refering to the college governors.

So that would include the ones who have been elected. As stated on the college website.

I thought they were all elected, not just one or two.
I'm not sure weither this is relavent but the estates commity hasn't met since last year, which leads me to belive this little "plan" has been in the pipe longer than we first thought.

[Harry]

Being naive, what is staggering in this whole process maybe the role that an (unlucky ?) thirteen unelected people can have in changing the face of Marple, irrevocably. And the lack of power in local and national politics to take on the aggressive supermarkets.

Who are these 'thirteen unelected people' mentioned above?

I think he is refering to the college governors.

So that would include the ones who have been elected. As stated on the college website.

[Smithy166]

Being naive, what is staggering in this whole process maybe the role that an (unlucky ?) thirteen unelected people can have in changing the face of Marple, irrevocably. And the lack of power in local and national politics to take on the aggressive supermarkets.

Who are these 'thirteen unelected people' mentioned above?

I think he is refering to the college governors.