Former MP for Vale of Glamorgan
I am grateful for the opportunity to inform the House about the difficulties that are being caused to all schools in Vale of Glamorgan by the incompetence of the Labour-controlled Vale of Glamorgan council. At the end of last month, schools were told that the council was about to impose budget cuts of £3.13 million on education. The effect on schools would be catastrophic. Some schools...
I was not aware of that circumstance, but I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing it to the attention of the House. I am sure that everyone will be interested to learn about that further example of duplicity and incompetence on the part of a Labour-controlled authority. Perhaps I should not have been too surprised at Councillor Stringer's petulance, as he appears to have been equally...
I will not say that I am grateful for that intervention. The hon. Gentleman misunderstands the situation. Vale of Glamorgan council has known, or at least the Labour leadership has known, for several months that the council was running over budget in education. It should have taken some pre-emptive action as long ago as last November to deal with the overspend, instead of confronting schools...
No, we have heard enough from the hon. Gentleman—he was wrong on both the points he raised, and I must press on with my speech. I am well aware that Councillor Stringer claims to have received a rough deal on the disaggregation that followed the abolition of South Glamorgan county council. Perhaps, instead of bleating about that a whole year after South Glamorgan council was abolished, he...
Unfortunately, I do not feel inclined to pay equal tribute to Vale of Glamorgan council, as that high level of achievement is unlikely to be maintained and improved unless the council spends more of its budget on education and finds ways of cutting administrative costs so that individual schools will receive more money. It is appropriate for me to draw the attention of the House to some...
The deputy leader of the council receives a fax and a mobile phone. The chief whip receives a pager, a fax and a mobile phone. The leaders of the minority groups get a fax and a mobile phone. All chairmen of committees receive a pager, a fax and a mobile phone. If the council is so hard up, how can it be spending money on things like that? Where do its priorities lie? Of course we want...
To ask the Attorney-General what steps he is taking to reduce delays in dealing with young offenders. [18851]
Will my right hon. and learned Friend take on board the fact that there is widespread concern in the Vale of Glamorgan about young offenders who commit fresh offences while waiting to be dealt with by the courts? Those offenders also tend to forget why they are in court if there is any significant delay. Does he agree that the CPS and all the other agencies involved in the criminal justice...
