§ 9.6 pm
§ Mr. Douglas French (Gloucester)I have the honour to present a petition with 3,450 signatures, the majority of which are those of people who live in the Oxstalls area in my constituency of Gloucester.
The petition seeks to save from sale, destruction and redevelopment the Oxstalls site, a purpose-built educational building which was a thriving part of higher education in Gloucester before the formation of the Cheltenham and Gloucester college of higher education and before the attempt by the college's governing body in Cheltenham to dispose of its premises in Gloucester altogether in order to spend the proceeds on its facilities in Cheltenham.
The petition states:
The humble Petition of the people of Gloucester shewethThat Government intervention is necessary to prevent the sale of the college site at Oxstalls, Gloucester.Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House require all necessary measures be speedily taken to ensure that the publicly funded college premises at Oxstalls, Gloucester are saved from demolition and reopened for the provision of vocational and technical courses, which otherwise are not available in this area, where unemployment has increased substantially.And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.