Browse content similar to 18/03/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In the South: a 5th of primary schools are full of overflowing, | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
and it is getting worse. Do we want our children learning in temporary | :01:50. | :02:00. | |
:02:00. | :02:00. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1706 seconds | :02:00. | :30:26. | |
Welcome to Sunday Politics South. My name is Peter Henley. On today's | :30:27. | :30:30. | |
show: The pitter-patter of tiny feet that is threatening to swamp | :30:30. | :30:33. | |
some councils - why there just aren't enough primary school | :30:33. | :30:42. | |
classrooms to cope with a current baby boom. | :30:42. | :30:46. | |
First to me introduce the politician to will be with me. | :30:46. | :30:56. | |
Nicola Blackwood and Andrew Smith. Andrew, a lot of talk in the papers | :30:56. | :31:01. | |
about gay marriage, marriage rather than civil partnership. Is that | :31:01. | :31:05. | |
something you pleased to see the government introduced? I was very | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
pleased to see the government bring in civil partnerships, but I think | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
if people want to be able to use the term marriage I don't think | :31:14. | :31:19. | |
there's a strong argument against it. I wonder why the government has | :31:19. | :31:24. | |
decided to push this to the top of the agenda right now? Light Andrew, | :31:24. | :31:29. | |
I think civil partnerships for a strong step forward and I am not | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
sure what the legal different is going to be between civil marriage | :31:32. | :31:37. | |
and civil partnership. Could it be a step too far? A I have concerns | :31:37. | :31:41. | |
of what we will end up with as a litigation situation were certain | :31:41. | :31:45. | |
gay couples might decide they want their civil marriage to become a | :31:45. | :31:51. | |
religious marriage and go to a church and take the Church to court. | :31:51. | :31:55. | |
The government has assured us that domestic legislation won't allow | :31:55. | :32:00. | |
religious marriages for gay couples, but if that went all the way to the | :32:00. | :32:05. | |
European courts the UK government would then have to pay attention to | :32:06. | :32:14. | |
that decision. Within the articles of human rights we have competing | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
arguments that. I am concerned about what the outcome of that kind | :32:18. | :32:21. | |
of dispute might be. But that we need to consider that very | :32:21. | :32:26. | |
carefully while we discussed this. At this stage it is a consultation. | :32:26. | :32:30. | |
The views of the religious community need to be taken into | :32:31. | :32:38. | |
account. If it is posturing by the Conservative Party, repositioning | :32:38. | :32:43. | |
maybe in some way, that could backfire? I would welcome the fact | :32:43. | :32:47. | |
that the Conservatives are repositioning on this issue. On the | :32:47. | :32:54. | |
end of the day, I think it is a matter of a quality. | :32:54. | :33:00. | |
repositioning? I do a thing that has anything to do with the issue. | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
It's the Budget on Wednesday, of course, and you might have noticed | :33:03. | :33:06. | |
one or two people queuing up to give the Chancellor George Osborne | :33:06. | :33:09. | |
plenty of advice about what he should and shouldn't do. The South | :33:09. | :33:12. | |
of England is often described as the engine of the economy, so what | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
message would the stokers like to see sent up to the bridge? Martin | :33:15. | :33:18. | |
Dare-Edwards is the Chair of the Oxford Local Enterprise Partnership. | :33:18. | :33:21. | |
It is the engine of the economy, isn't it? Regeneration should be | :33:21. | :33:25. | |
happening in other places in the south of England. Spend it in the | :33:25. | :33:32. | |
places where they need the jobs most. It is also making things that | :33:32. | :33:36. | |
er goods, great and globally competitive. We are delighted by | :33:36. | :33:42. | |
the approval from the government to create an enterprise zone in the | :33:42. | :33:47. | |
south of the country. That gives the opportunity to take some | :33:47. | :33:54. | |
leading technologies, to grow them on an international scale and | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
improve the economy by increasing exports. If that -- is the | :33:59. | :34:03. | |
government investing in our part of the world, is a regeneration, | :34:03. | :34:08. | |
creating jobs? You're not applying to the regional growth fund. We are | :34:08. | :34:11. | |
not. We got clear advice from government departments that the | :34:11. | :34:17. | |
regional growth fund is devoted more for the north and west of the | :34:17. | :34:24. | |
UK. We are pursuing by other means. We need to make compelling cases | :34:24. | :34:30. | |
for investment. And the structure will be a key issue for us in | :34:30. | :34:35. | |
Oxfordshire. Infrastructure to support the enterprise zone and | :34:36. | :34:45. | |
:34:46. | :34:47. | ||
other areas of the county were we foresee growth. The Oxford Show | :34:47. | :34:52. | |
have other key areas there are looking at. We will be seeking | :34:53. | :34:58. | |
support for funding. We talk about housebuilding a lot. Do you think | :34:58. | :35:04. | |
are planning changes will help businesses? Should there be more | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
support from things like housebuilding? Do isn't much of a | :35:08. | :35:16. | |
building in terms of house building in Bicester. I think there is a lot | :35:16. | :35:20. | |
of opportunity in Oxfordshire for houses. Development land is the | :35:20. | :35:25. | |
issue and planning in that regard. This simplified planning | :35:25. | :35:28. | |
arrangement there we have been setting up in the southern part of | :35:28. | :35:33. | |
the county, we are first seen to see that as a template to bring to | :35:33. | :35:40. | |
other parts of the county, using Eric Pickles's term, we will | :35:40. | :35:46. | |
disappear as growth since. Growth because once been the engine room, | :35:46. | :35:50. | |
successful and prosperous, we can create more jobs here and could be | :35:51. | :35:53. | |
greater than other places and people might have become in and do | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
those jobs? Go there was also the opportunity of bringing in | :35:58. | :36:02. | |
investment from abroad, which is important. Investment in businesses | :36:02. | :36:07. | |
that maybe taps into the technology development from a two world-class | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
universities in Oxfordshire, and then generate businesses that | :36:11. | :36:15. | |
create products by designing by technology that are differentiated | :36:15. | :36:19. | |
and can be sold to the rest of the world and make the whole county | :36:19. | :36:26. | |
much more resilient to changes in local economies. Golden future or a | :36:26. | :36:33. | |
gloomy future? Golden. I Andrew Smith, do you think the Chancellor, | :36:33. | :36:37. | |
has he believed -- has he been borrowing enough to get the whole | :36:37. | :36:41. | |
country growing? Our argument has been the while the deficit needs to | :36:41. | :36:46. | |
be tackled, the government has been cutting too far too fast so they | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
have had to borrow �150 billion more than they were planning. | :36:50. | :36:55. | |
Looking at the Budget, infrastructure investment is very | :36:55. | :37:03. | |
important. Investment in science is very important. We do need | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
investment in transport infrastructure. There is always the | :37:07. | :37:12. | |
chance that the government might funnel money to other parts of the | :37:12. | :37:18. | |
country and killed the goose that lays the golden egg. I signed up | :37:18. | :37:26. | |
�263 million to establish a big science investment in Didcot. We | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
need to keep focused on that. The Chancellor has to do something | :37:30. | :37:35. | |
about petrol prices. This is hitting families and businesses in | :37:35. | :37:41. | |
our region and across the country very hard indeed. There has been a | :37:41. | :37:44. | |
report at the centre of economic research which shows that if he | :37:44. | :37:51. | |
holds food -- -- calls to fuel duty or cut it a little, it would | :37:51. | :38:00. | |
generate jobs and pay for itself. Do you agree with that? On fuel | :38:00. | :38:05. | |
issues, I do. I think that would be welcome. There has been a lot of | :38:05. | :38:12. | |
investment in terms of real investment for Oxfordshire. I also | :38:12. | :38:17. | |
think that one of the big challenges for the region is roads | :38:17. | :38:23. | |
investment. The a 34 costs are so many problems. It is a major trade | :38:23. | :38:27. | |
groups and I think it has had so little investment for so long we do | :38:27. | :38:31. | |
need to be looking at how we can start improving that because when | :38:31. | :38:34. | |
something goes wrong and just one part of that road the ripple | :38:34. | :38:39. | |
effects are significant. People sitting in traffic jams cost as an | :38:39. | :38:41. | |
environmental problem and the knock-on effect economically | :38:41. | :38:45. | |
because people are economic the inactive when they're sitting in a | :38:45. | :38:50. | |
traffic jam. The last improvement on a road was the Newbury bypass, | :38:50. | :38:56. | |
which was a huge problem. So it won't happen, would it? I think you | :38:56. | :38:59. | |
can't not make the case for something that needs to be done | :38:59. | :39:04. | |
because the last time something was done it didn't go well. We need to | :39:04. | :39:12. | |
look at this book but it has cost in people's lives a misery. We need | :39:12. | :39:21. | |
to not just look at R&D investment, but we have so many scientists and | :39:21. | :39:27. | |
researchers here, but the proper skills base. The apprenticeship | :39:27. | :39:33. | |
scheme which is working has been very successful. We have had over a | :39:33. | :39:40. | |
36 % increase. I think it should be extended to a younger age group. | :39:40. | :39:48. | |
unified message from the start of the world! -- spark of the world! | :39:48. | :39:51. | |
And just a reminder that tomorrow night you can see a special | :39:51. | :39:54. | |
programme looking at the future for the economy in our region. They | :39:54. | :39:57. | |
will be talking to key players about the pressures on incomes, | :39:57. | :39:59. | |
rising unemployment and the prospects for growth. That's Our | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
Economy, the South Today debate with Sally Taylor tomorrow night at | :40:02. | :40:05. | |
11.05pm. 2008 was a bit of a boom year for | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
babies. All very nice for the mums and dads of course, but it is now | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
becoming a bit of a headache for education planners because all | :40:12. | :40:14. | |
those little ones now need primary school places. There just aren't | :40:14. | :40:17. | |
enough to go round, so, as Tristan Pascoe reports, some councils are | :40:17. | :40:23. | |
having to consider some unusual classrooms. | :40:23. | :40:27. | |
The post-war baby boom which sold the population jump by more than | :40:27. | :40:33. | |
half a million. For whatever reason, it is happening again. In 2000 and | :40:33. | :40:36. | |
made the UK experience this greatest population increase in | :40:36. | :40:40. | |
almost half-a-century with the number of people living in the | :40:40. | :40:46. | |
country going above 61 million for the first time. It is not just | :40:46. | :40:49. | |
midwives who are rushed off their feet. In Dorset, as across the | :40:49. | :40:53. | |
country, there aren't enough primary school places to go round. | :40:53. | :41:00. | |
We have got pressure on her reception class intake. We are | :41:00. | :41:06. | |
experiencing increasing demand and it is up to close to 50 %. These | :41:06. | :41:10. | |
baby booms periodically come round. What seems to be incredible is that | :41:10. | :41:16. | |
local authorities never seen to plan for this. The minute the | :41:16. | :41:21. | |
birthrate drops they then start amalgamating schools, closing | :41:21. | :41:26. | |
schools and losing all of the surplus places. His is an issue | :41:26. | :41:30. | |
right across the south. Winchester there is huge opposition | :41:30. | :41:35. | |
to new temporary classrooms, and in Brighton a former police station | :41:35. | :41:39. | |
and the Amex stadium are being lined up as alternative classroom | :41:39. | :41:44. | |
spaces. With the baby boom locally, 420 new Brummies go places are | :41:44. | :41:50. | |
needed in Bournemouth. That will mean more modular buildings, | :41:50. | :41:55. | |
temporary classrooms, only ever a short-term solution are now | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
becoming something of a permanent fixture. This school is well- | :41:59. | :42:04. | |
equipped to deal with the surge in numbers. They have recently added a | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
brand-new hall, kitchen and larger work spaces, but there are | :42:08. | :42:14. | |
drawbacks. This year because we have one spare classroom, we have a | :42:14. | :42:20. | |
library in a proper room, but because we are expecting an | :42:20. | :42:23. | |
additional class inspect -- in September we will lose that | :42:23. | :42:27. | |
facility for four years. The on that we're confident we will regain | :42:27. | :42:35. | |
that space. A short-term struggle or loss and the terms of the | :42:35. | :42:41. | |
library, but you will gain aback. Campaigners fear for their impact | :42:41. | :42:46. | |
of losing facilities like libraries to create extra space. It cannot be | :42:46. | :42:50. | |
all funding to a few desks and chairs and the full on learning of | :42:50. | :42:55. | |
the time. They have got to be able to express themselves, move around. | :42:55. | :43:00. | |
We need to give them the space and I think it any a authority did so | :43:00. | :43:05. | |
school into a position of having to close down a library, a play room, | :43:05. | :43:09. | |
any of those facilities, then they really need to be held to ransom | :43:09. | :43:15. | |
over it. It is not acceptable. years ago this primers: Bournemouth | :43:15. | :43:20. | |
was closed with a loss of more than 60 places. It will now be reopened, | :43:20. | :43:25. | |
so did the Borough Council get it wrong? No, we didn't. Circumstances | :43:25. | :43:32. | |
were very different. It was closed because it was underperforming. We | :43:32. | :43:38. | |
are in a different situation now with numbers with at big cohort | :43:38. | :43:43. | |
coming up. By on a recent visit -- recent visit to this out the | :43:44. | :43:47. | |
schools minister said funds were being made available. We are | :43:47. | :43:51. | |
putting extra money into new provision particularly for primary | :43:51. | :43:58. | |
school places. We have topped it up with an extra �600 million to | :43:58. | :44:02. | |
ensure that local authorities have the capital to build new schools or | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
new classrooms where there is increasing demand. There is | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
increasing demand as the result of the baby boom of the beginning of | :44:09. | :44:15. | |
the century. With highly protected heathland and his seat, its space | :44:15. | :44:20. | |
for new schools as something that Bournemouth doesn't have. Andrew | :44:20. | :44:25. | |
Smith, is it just one of those things, a baby boom, or is there | :44:25. | :44:31. | |
bad planning? Questions have to be asked about the planning. It is a | :44:31. | :44:36. | |
problem in Oxfordshire. A local newspaper did report shown that | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
six-and-a-half 1000 children in our county who are in temporary | :44:40. | :44:44. | |
classrooms. Some of their head teachers said that the temporary | :44:44. | :44:48. | |
classrooms were of as good a quality as their permanent | :44:48. | :44:56. | |
buildings! One of the first things this government did was cancel | :44:56. | :44:58. | |
their Building Schools For The Future programme. Although we had | :44:58. | :45:02. | |
the more money is going in, there is an opportunity for the | :45:02. | :45:06. | |
Chancellor in the Budget. Why not bring forward expenditure that is | :45:06. | :45:12. | |
planned on schools so we can guess -- so we can get the new school | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
spilt and generate jobs. The reason they cancelled that was because the | :45:17. | :45:21. | |
money had run out. Maybe some of those schools in the Midlands and | :45:21. | :45:25. | |
North were too expensive. I would question that. In my own | :45:25. | :45:30. | |
constituency, Wood Farm Primary School is being rebuilt and it is | :45:30. | :45:35. | |
fantastic the transformation that is causing to the whole community. | :45:35. | :45:39. | |
Money has to be spent effectively but it should not be an excuse for | :45:39. | :45:43. | |
abandoning meeting the basic needs of children where they are in | :45:43. | :45:47. | |
overcrowded or inadequate accommodation. A Nicola Blackwood, | :45:47. | :45:51. | |
in Oxfordshire 92 schools are turning away some parents because | :45:51. | :45:58. | |
they have chosen it as their place. That is nearly 50 % of the primary | :45:58. | :46:01. | |
schools in Oxfordshire where they are getting full up. It is a | :46:01. | :46:05. | |
problem. We can always improve planning and we need to look at how | :46:05. | :46:09. | |
we can do that and anticipate birth rates. People move between areas, | :46:09. | :46:13. | |
so even if you know what people have been born do don't necessarily | :46:13. | :46:18. | |
know where they will go to Burmese school. We can improve our | :46:18. | :46:24. | |
admissions code and the way we do admissions to primary schools. But | :46:24. | :46:28. | |
secondary level there is one day on which all the offers for secondary | :46:28. | :46:32. | |
schools come out, but that is not that thing for primary schools, | :46:32. | :46:38. | |
which makes it very difficult. about just providing more spaces? | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
An awful lot of money had been spent on bureaucracy and was not | :46:43. | :46:46. | |
being built on the schools themselves. But was not a good | :46:46. | :46:52. | |
programme. We eat got real benefit from it in my constituency and | :46:52. | :47:02. | |
schools which suffered, that was a real blow. I'm really worry about | :47:02. | :47:06. | |
the pace of the forced Academy's programme that the government is | :47:06. | :47:14. | |
driving through. This is destroying local educational bomb macro is is | :47:14. | :47:22. | |
not a forced Academy programme. school is forced to apply. Schools | :47:22. | :47:27. | |
have ultimatums from the government through the Local Education | :47:27. | :47:32. | |
Authority bomb macro they have to choose. They don't have any choice. | :47:33. | :47:37. | |
It is causing turmoil and that is bound to damage the planning and | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
provision of the places that we need. Academy schools are improving | :47:41. | :47:46. | |
their quality of the Kade -- quality of education as none | :47:46. | :47:50. | |
Academy Schools. Where you have Academy Schools the children are | :47:50. | :47:54. | |
getting better quality of teachers and there are also able to expand | :47:54. | :47:59. | |
the number of places. This is what parents are calling for. I think | :47:59. | :48:06. | |
that is the government listening. Now our regular round-up of the | :48:06. | :48:16. | |
:48:16. | :48:19. | ||
political week in the South in 60 The despite spring showers it seems | :48:19. | :48:25. | |
to have it right. 25 inches more than the 30 we need to keep the | :48:25. | :48:31. | |
reservoirs topped up, so had no hosepipe bans. Thames Water staff | :48:31. | :48:37. | |
got involved in cleaning up the River Thames at the weekend. This | :48:37. | :48:41. | |
counts, Thames 21, all sorts of different groups come together | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
because they care about breading. Bad news for the time when it | :48:44. | :48:51. | |
failed to win the Diamond Jubilee competition to become a city. | :48:51. | :48:55. | |
Clearly I am disappointed, but congratulations to the Downs the | :48:55. | :49:00. | |
did become cities. Here is what will Council called an icon of | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
their town success. This week the surface was falling apart on the | :49:04. | :49:11. | |
bridge. Is that along we are saying you don't know yet? Yes. Some said | :49:11. | :49:15. | |
the occupier protests would fall apart, but they moved on to the | :49:15. | :49:25. | |
:49:25. | :49:25. | ||
university. The protest continues. Hard luck Reading. And I think it | :49:25. | :49:33. | |
is a great pity it has not been made a city. Why not give them the | :49:33. | :49:43. | |
status? I think they have was a very good bid. -- they put forward | :49:43. | :49:51. | |
a very good bid. I think Reading would have been an excellent choice. | :49:51. | :49:57. | |
They remain as a London suburb, I suppose, which is not what we want. | :49:57. | :50:02. | |
In it is not a London suburb! It is a very successful part of our | :50:02. | :50:08. | |
economy. He might get some letters after that, Peter! Thank you so | :50:08. | :50:11. | |
much. That's the Sunday Politics in the South. Thanks to my guests, | :50:11. | :50:14. |