Tuesday 7 September 2010

Maiden Erlegh campaign moves forward

Things are moving forwards with the campaign against Wokingham's plan to remove Reading families from the Maiden Erlegh catchment area in the south Park Ward area. I organised a small meeting of interested parents and people last week, and it now looks like we will have a parent led -- non party political -- campaign against the changes.

As far as succeeding goes it appears as though the Greens, Labour and the Conservatives will all be opposing these changes to the catchment area. I've not heard back from the Lib Dems yet but my guess is that they will be against the changes too. Hopefully we will be able to work together on this... I think that this is essential to standing a reasonable chance of winning the campaign, as without a united front -- or at least a majority of Reading councillors -- we won't be able to bring the full weight and resources of Reading Council behind the campaign.

This does put the Reading Conservatives at loggerheads with the Wokingham Conservatives which I'm sure will make for some interesting debates!

Whilst a similar campaign has been won in the past, and I think we stand a reasonable chance of winning this time, we really do need a new secondary school in east Reading... But that is the campaign for another day.

I have set up a Facebook group called No to Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area Changes to bring people together to fight these changes:

http://tiny.cc/catchment

If you aren't on Facebook and want to be kept updated please get in contact.

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