THE WAR OVER the battle for school places in Chafford Hundred took another twist as one of the lead campaigners has lost her appeal for a school place for one of her children.
Lea Agambar has been at the forefront of the campaign after 23 pupils failed to get a place in any of the three Chafford primary schools.
But Mrs Agambar has pledged not to give up.
Mrs Agambar told YT: “I am so upset and angry. I have requested another meeting with (chief executive) Mr Farrant. If my son does not go to school in September, I could face prosecution but I will not give up.”
But well placed sources have questioned the blaze of publicity that has accompanied the campaign hand have questioned whether an under the radar approach would have been better.
The campaign has been heqvily political. Chair of governors at Chafford Hundred primary and local councillor, Tunde Ojetola orchestrated a picket by parents, pupils and Tory councillors of the “Making of the Mayor” ceremony whilst a number of the parents and pupils visited Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament to meet senior Conservative officials.
Would love to know who’s questioning the approach. Residents in shock as local councillor and MP aim to represent residents!? I assume the well placed source is a socialist who finds the whole thing might embarrassing…
Incidentally, are you going to name the Tory councillors you alledge picketed the Mayor making?
All the councillors for Chafford and South Chafford are Conservatives, so I would assume that the picketing councillors were simply the local councillors – or does Ben know something we don’t?
Only last year a friend of mine appealed for a place for her Daughter to attend the same school as her son explaining that he had real health problems i.e Asthma, they lived quiet a walk from the shcool and she was afraid if he had an attack he would be on his own, other attacks had left him Hospitalized. She had medical evidence etc, when she went to the hearing she found one of the panel giving her a lecture about how he always voted against the appeals and got enjoyment from it, it oviously makes him feel self important, if I had the name of this TWAT I would name him. But best of all the Legal Team at Thurrock Council are well aware of this bunch of misfits and what they are doing, but prefer to ignore it. As for Mr Farrant, nice man, but I think he is now too tied up with these other councils to bother with a mums anger and School placements. I do wish her luck, Ojetola needs to name and shame this panel.
It should make no difference who was involved in this case. The story is about a mother trying to get her child into a local school and the appeal should have been judged on that merit alone. I don’t blame her for attracting publicity to the matter as it has now opened up the debate as to whether Chafford needs a free school in order to cope with all the children needing places.
Local councillors and the local MP are there to deal with such situations so i see no problem with getting them involved.
i’m wondering if bernard87 means grays needs to get a free school?,or if he assumes chafford should get special treatment as they are better than everyone else.
I salute u mrs agambar. I am confident u will succeed eventually. Keep it up!
No Rocket I meant Chafford….as that is where there seems to be an issue year after year. Nothing to do with special treatment.
It’s the “I” thing and everyone knows it. Cheers Labour party. Create demand with no solution as to how to meet that demand. Sorry that should have read create Labour voters and blame the Tories as they’ll be in power when Labour have bankrupted the country and legged it. W**ke*s.
Ben perhaps you could name them?
Forgive me if I’m wrong as I was not there but I heard you were there as was Cllr Coxshall whom is not a cllr for Chafford. cllr Keys & Cllr Ojetola,are at least the cllrs for the area. As was written on this site a few weeks ago, it is only the parents & children that suffer.this is so typical Tory political games with other peoples lives. Then they walk away
I’m struggling to understand how the Tories are playing political games here? The issue is about a group of mums trying to secure a school place on Chafford. They have got their local councillors and MP involved who all happen to be Tories. Had this been an issue in Tilbury I would expect to see Labour councillors helping their constituents and I would imagine that JDP would still be involved in helping the parents there. The trip to Downing Street was to try and lobby the Government to build a free school on Chafford which makes perfect sense considering the situation. Cllr Gerrish has also been apart of this issue showing Labour do have some involvment.
Rain Mack – Sorry, I took slight exception to the report that Cllr Ojetola “orchestrated a picket by… Tory councillors”.
I was indeed there, and all I saw was the local Tory councillors (Key and Ojetola); the shadow portfolio holder for education (Halden); and a member of the MP’s staff who happens to be a councillor (Coxshall) – discussing the issue with their residents.
Not a picket, and certainly a very small number of relevant councillors – which may not be the impression left by the article.
thanks for clarifying that bernard87,there are loads of families in thurrock that do not get the school of their choice,as usual its the chafford residents that demand the lions share of any local spending.
If that is the case then I urge those parents to contact their local councillors and their MP as well. For me this Is not about politics or special treatment, it’s about making sure that local children get places in local schools.
At Last Rocket1
I thank you SPOT ON regarding the lions share.
I will say again political games are unfair on all residents.
Ben I also thank you for your response, however I will say again where were these same mentioned cllrs ( helpers) when the Tories were in administration & parents had this self same problem? I do not refer to cllr Keys as he was not elected.
They were not helping then as I recall we had cllr Revell be very un helpful, & the national. Media in town
Rain Mack, I agree with you that political games are unfair on all residents. They waste time and money which could be used to sort of the problem in the first place. There are far too many games in politics for my liking.
As I have said before, it would have been impossible for the Tories to campaign for a free school in Chafford years ago as this was not Labour government policy. The Tories who ran the council had the same constraints as the local Labour group now. The difference now is that with a Tory led government, and a Tory MP, parents can now try to get a free school set up for Chafford children. As I said to Rocket, if the problem with school places are bad elsewhere in Thurrock then I urge parents there to do the same.
I don’t think it’s the decent thing to do to moan about Chafford parents wanting the best for their children, not the lions share. We hear so much about bad parents and child neglect that I like to read stories about parents fighting for their children rather than accepting what the local authorities throw at them.
bernard thinks that because twenty three children never got their first choice school chafford is entitled to a multi million pound school,its amazing.
The original plan on Chafford Hundred was to build a new school on the container park for the primary, much bigger and then allow for the secondary school to expand into the primary building. However the TBC screwed this up, and now there are a lack of places.
Just because you hate a community, it’s not their fault that the TBC was willing to build lots of homes and not plan for resources, this local community is fighting for its rights locally. I would expect the same for any of the other communities, if they had a lack of spaces then their elected Councillors would need to help fight for their rights as well.
If TBC are not willing to provide a local school for local children then why should they not go it alone and look at a free school.
Well said RobF4 I think there will be even more free schools popping up across the country as more communities take the education of their offspring into their own hands.
i don’t know where you are getting you information fromROBF4,but it is totally wrong,in the original plans the school was no where near the container park.
Rocket, I’m thinking it was after Plan C or D, not the original site anyway. You would need to check with TBC
purfleet has not even got one secondary school,i think they have a better case than chafford.
Rocket, fully agree with Purfleet needing a new school. Let’s see with the new investment for homes TBC do not make the same mistake and plan those resources in advance. They are investing 650million, but only allowing for a 630 place primary school.
Someone needs to make the tough and unpopular decision to sell off education assets in the East of the borough (i.e one of the primary schools or school playing fields) and invest in new schools and classrooms in the West.
The majority of the population growth has been in the West – and the school places modeling the local education authority use doesn’t take into account that many flats contain large families.
RobF4 is wrong and rocket1 is right – the original school plan was – and I am trying to recall this from memory – from Celedon Close/Fenton Road area stretching down to Devonshire Road.
The developers gave Essex County Council 5 years (I think) to submit plans and if they failed to do this they would build houses on the site.
Thurrock became a Unitary Authority and the Labour run council failed to submit any plans – so the land was handed back to the developer who subsequenty filled every square inch with houses and flats.
I would be interesting to know if the previous Conservative run council rejected buying the container site back in 2008/09 and their reasons for not buying the site and building a new school.
I’m sure there must be a report or minutes somewhere out there.
Ed, how can you say I’m wrong and then confirm in your last sentance the purchase of the container park This area was to build a new primary, and allow for the secondary to expand into the current primary.
I know full well where the school was meant to be first time round, thats why i said plan c or d.
I know we are venturing off topic a little, but its worth noting that the current Purfleet Primary School is not full at the moment.
Whoops Rob didn’t read your further comment about plan c or d 🙂
There is nothing wrong with building a multi storey primary on part of the playing fields of the Academy. Although there are rules about local authorities providing so much square metres of playing field per pupil – they can be ignored where the local authority has no option.
And Ben the Chafford parent don’t want to send their kids to Purfleet or any of the Grays schools although many have spare spaces.
It’s OK Ed, I wasn’t suggesting the Chafford pupils come to Purfleet, I was responding to Rob’s comment about Purfleet needing a school.