Almost exactly a year ago I blogged about the dire shortage of good secondary school places for children in South Reading. Reading's Labour-run Council have had years to sort this problem out.
My colleague Kirsten Bayes highlights in the Evening Post today that things are little better this year.
23 children who applied to go to the popular John Madjeski Academy failed to get in.
Kirsten also highlights the awful situation whereby some children in the Borough are being forced to travel long distances to school - bad for them and bad for the local environment.
Providing a bus between Whitley and Tilehurst to allow children to attend Prospect School is also not cheap when Council finances are under more pressure than ever.
Through the budget process we have got the Labour administration to review school transport to ensure we are getting good services and value for money.
Kirsten has also played a key role in getting the long overdue scrutiny review into school admissions in Reading off the ground.
Reading Borough Council must address this gap in education provision as priority, as the local education authority responsible.
One wonders how this is going to to be achieved in the current economic downturn, however.
Back in January, Cllr Jon Hartley, Lead Member for Education suggested that funding to extend a South Reading secondary school could be found via the Labour Government's Building Schools For the Future Programme.
However, BSF depends almost entirely on private sector finance. As a result of the recession, many such schemes are drying up and Labour minister Yvette Cooper announced only a few days ago that the taxpayer is likely to foot most of the the bill for more public infrastructure projects, including school buildings.
The Times revealed in Febuary that money for school building projects could be taken from the public sector pension pot which just beggars belief.
It could be argued that this is academic given as far as I'm aware, Reading Borough Council is not one of the local education authorities set to partcipate in the (secondary school) BSF programme.
So, for now, the likelihood of more school places being made available for Reading children seems a long way off. My Lib Dem colleagues and I will continue to press the Labour administration to put this right.
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