§ VISCOUNT CRANBORNE (Rochester)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he has declared the St. John's National School and the British School at Cleckheaton to be unavailable, on account of distance, for supplying some of the deficient school accommodation caused by the closing of the Westgate School in the same parish, notwithstanding the fact that both these schools are less than 1,300 yards distant from the closed school, and are in many cases more accessible to the children now attending Westgate School; and whether he will reconsider the case?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Mr. ACLAND,) York, W.R., RotherhamThe Department, after very careful inquiry, have decided that no school in Cleckheaton, except the St. Luke's Church of England School, is sufficiently near the Westgate School to supply the deficiency caused by the closure of the latter. The two schools named by the noble Lord are about three-quarters of a mile off. It is especially necessary that the half-time children, many of whom now attend the Westgate School, should have a school near the mills at which they work.
§ VISCOUNT CRANBORNEI would like to ask the Vice President whether 20 he is aware that in the last letter of the Department they threatened to take the most extreme course of publishing the statutory notice 14 days from the day of writing the letter, or two days from the present time, and whether the right hon. Gentleman will consent to postpone that notice for a few days, in order that further communications may possibly be made to him on the subject, which might modify his judgment?
§ MR. ACLANDI was not aware of the matter. The case, I believe, has been going on for some time. I will look into it, and refer to the notice.