§ Mr. Nigel Spearing (Newham, South)I present a petition signed by more than 1,000 residents and electors of the dockland area of the borough of Newham, south of Newham way. It is an area of rapidly increasing population and of moderately sized homes which are either owner-occupied or rented from the council or from housing associations. The primary schools are over-full and there are no secondary schools.
Despite Government plans for considerable development in the area, no funds have been earmarked for a secondary school by the Department of Education and Science. Indeed, a recent decision by the Secretary of State for Education and Science to retain 800 places in an opt-out school in the north of the borough has prejudiced the borough plan for the construction of such secondary schools on designated sites south of Newham way.
The petition reads:
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House will urge the Secretary of State for Education and Science to ensure that sufficient resources are provided now for extension to and new building of primary schools and for the construction of two new secondary schools for pupils living in that part of the Borough of Newham south of the Newham Way, and further pray that the secondary schools incorporate sufficient community provision to serve the planned increase in population without prejudice to the needs of, or services to, pupils or the whole community in the remainder of the Borough and that these necessary schemes by completed without capital financial liability to its citizens.And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.
§ To lie upon the Table.