The borough’s education chief has been accused of turning a consultation on the academies process into a “sham”, after he told people what answers to give.
A document written by Councillor Malcolm Eady, cabinet member for education and children’s services, asked people to take part in the consultation on the scheme to turn Hampton Community College (HCC) and Whitton School into academies.
It is thought the document was emailed to Liberal Democrat activists, and Coun Eady asked “colleagues” to respond to “the Government’s statutory consultation on the closure of the two schools”.
He also suggested reasons they may like to use to promote the closure of the schools, including “to raise the standards at the school”, “to access the educational resources of an innovative top class Swedish education provider” and “to bring £18m of capital investment to HCC and about £25m to Whitton”. The email was sent on his behalf by Councillor Stephen Knight, deputy leader of Richmond Council.
Councillor Geoffrey Samuel, deputy leader of Richmond Conservatives, said it confirmed his party’s belief the consultation was a “sham”.
He said: “His listing of points which ‘colleagues’ are asked to make is not only an abuse of process – it proves that the Lib Dems know they cannot win if the consultation is fair.”
He called for any returns to the consultation which repeat Coun Eady’s words to be deleted.
Coun Eady said the email was in line with his support for the academies project and was a call to take part.
He said: “When I enquired how the school closure consultation was progressing I found it had received very few returns.
“When looking through the returns, I noted 10 were from Conservative councillors, and none from my colleagues.
“Three senior Conservatives had written detailed responses, seven others were very short and had the same one line comment.
“My note is clearly a request for them to take part in the consultation exercise.
“It gives details of the process and the main arguments for academies. I did not feel I had to supply them with arguments against.
“I did not tell them which answers to give, it was clearly a call to take part.”
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