Thanks to early action by the County Council following a meeting with Ed Balls, Schools Minister, we do not face the disaster of a school closure this month.  Following the independent inspectors report on Mew Manton, we would have been facing closure, upheaval for parents and job losses.

I intervened after learning that the school was advertising for a new head in advance of the independent Ofsted inspection and asked for consideration being given to a Federation with Ryton Park. Thankfully this was agreed by governors from both schools and the council. We are therefore able to maintain continuity of New Manton school, despite its  inspection results.

I suspect that most parents had no idea that the school was in danger of being closed down and their children moved. In particular the report highlighted poor reading and writing skills. These are big challenges for the new head, Richard Lilley, and I think that the continuity that our intervention has provided will assist him in making significant advances very quickly.

One consequence of poor literacy is anti-social behaviour. A spot check on the area on a school afternoon found far too many children not at school, often riding motorbikes and mini-motos illegally.

This begs three questions. Why are parents giving kids these illegal bikes and who is paying for them? Which petrol station is selling the petrol illegally to underage drivers and why are they not being prosecuted? And why are the police not confiscating and crushing these illegal bikes?

If you have evidence of this menace, including names, addresses, photos or any other information then I will pass this on and follow it through without compromising your confidentiality.  In particular I want to target those selling the petrol illegally and irresponsibly.

I have been challenged to identify where other than the Alderman’s dinner and translation into Arabic and other languages I can identify council savings. Of course these two are small savings, but watch the pennies and count the pounds. I have found much bigger savings. Number one; the council should use its own staff rather than contract out to the private sector, as the graveyard disgrace demonstrates. Council staff who live locally would not have acted so outrageously. Number two; stop paying expensive consultants to do what senior managers are paid to do. There are far too many outside consultants paid far too much money in our Town Hall these days.