Wicken House - Tory Record of Shame (Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats)

Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats <info@saffronwaldenlibdems.org.uk>

Wicken House - Tory Record of Shame

January 22, 2008 10:31 PM

Wicken House - another Tory sell-off

The attitude of Essex County Council to children and parents, to school teachers, to their own employees and to their paying clients over the imminent closure of Wicken House residential centre at Wicken Bonhunt has shamed the reputation of local government.

It all started with a sham consultation that made no mention of closure of one of the most loved of children's facilities in Essex. The county council has been unwilling to be open about the finances and has made spurious claims about the reason for closure. Their promise to sell off this part of the ' county family silver' and to use the proceeds to replace the Wicken House facilities elsewhere seems at best muddled and at worst a fabrication.

In a recent press letter Cllr Ray Gooding said the 'receipts from the sale of the property would be better spent in developing 21st-century facilities at other locations'. That sounds like Wicken House will be replaced by something better. Yet when Lib Dem councillor Alan Dean met Councillors Chapman, Gooding and Hanningfield in December - when two expert educational customers of theirs, who had travelled specially to county hall, were rudely excluded from the discussion - Tracey Chapman told him that she had no interest in replicating the indoor artistic, cultural and the environmental education facilities of Wicken House at another centre. She was only intending to enhance facilities for outdoor activities such as climbing frames and boating.

Cllr Ray Gooding has made feeble attempts in the local press to slur the GIFT organisation that provides educational events at Wicken House for gifted and talented children. These appear to be unseemly efforts to divert attention from his and his county colleagues' ineptitude in undermining residential education in Essex for young people of all ages and aptitudes.

Cllr Gooding talks about 'normal provision for the locality'. What will this be? Is it the fulfilment of his promise to make good the loss of Wicken Bonhunt's village amenity at the house? In a letter to a local Member of Parliament, Cllr Chapman recently wrote "there are currently no plans to provide or create facilities for the community of Wicken Bonhunt from the revenue derived from the sale of Wicken House". Does Cllr Gooding know what he is saying or does the public need educating in 'county-speak'?

Alan Dean summed up "His boss, Cllr Tracey Chapman, is curiously now trying to get hold of all my correspondence with the Save Wicken House campaign people. It would be far better for her to talk to people rather than try to read their private mail.

"We can only hope that from the imminent changes in portfolios at county hall, which will at least see Cllr Chapman moved to new pastures, stronger respect for other people and their opinions may be ushered in to replace the obfuscation and unpleasantness that greets people who probe the county council's decisions."