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NEWS RELEASE
25TH APRIL 2008

GEORGE GALLOWAY AND EAST END COMMUNITY MARCH ON BETHNAL GREEN TO PROTEST AGAINST COLLEGE CLOSURE

George Galloway, MP for Tower Hamlets, will arrive in his routemaster tourbus and speak at a rally in Bethnal Green Gardens, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 at 11.30am, this Saturday 26th April. Mr.Galloway will then march down Bethnal Green Road with the community to protest against the proposed closure of the Bethnal Green Education Centre by Tower Hamlets Council’s Education department. He will be accompanied by teachers, students, local people and the Barking Batteria Samba band.

The community is marching to express a vote of no confidence in Tower Hamlets Council because the Borough recently published plans online to dispense with college classes at the Bethnal Green Centre (B.G.C.) this September, without first consulting the staff and students. Repeated requests for clarification of the council’s plans for the centre have been either ignored or answered inconsistently by members responsible for running education and Ideas stores in the borough.

In a letter published in the East London Advertizer this week (24th April 2008) George Galloway, MP for Tower Hamlets, says,

“The evacuation of the Centre for its temporary use as a home for Bethnal Green College sixth formers is clearly a precursor to the Centre being sold for redevelopment. Kevin Collins, who is in charge of education in the Borough, admitted this in response to an enquiry from me on behalf of users of the Centre.”

Roberto Foth, teacher at the B.G.C. and UCU union representative said:

“It’s an outrage that Tower Hamlets Council devised secret plans to dispose of the Bethnal Green Centre without first consulting staff and students.

“The Centre could be run by the 1500 plus people who use its 60 different classes rather than Mr. Collins who wants to use the capital for the development of a regeneration and housing project including a new Ideas Store."

Staff are pushing for the Council to come clean about its plans for the Bethnal Green Centre. They want a proper meeting with Councillors to establish clear proposals for the Centre’s future, and to:

· clarify the Council’s plans regarding Bethnal Green Centre in the medium and long term.
· assure staff and students of the Council’s commitment to keep Bethnal Green Centre as a place for adult learning in the short, medium and long term.
· outline the arguments for using Bethnal Green Centre as a temporary decant for 2 years, for Year 10 & 11 pupils from the nearby Technology College, displacing adult learners in the process, rather than another alternative venue.
· provide solid assurances to ALL staff (i.e. teaching and non-teaching staff) and students on current courses that their courses will run beyond next term at Bethnal Green Centre without any reductions in terms of hours and scheduled at times suitable for adult learners.
· give cast-iron assurances to crèche staff and parents that the crèche will continue in its current form beyond July 2008.

Notes to Editors

· For more information and interviews, please contact: Jemima Broadbridge, Press Officer, Mob: 07770 648 139

· The Bethnal Green Centre is based at: 229 Bethnal Green Road, London, E2 6AB

· For more information about the Bethnal Green Centre see: http://bethnalgreencentre.blogspot.com/

· For previous campaign coverage in the East London Advertizer, see:
http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsela&itemid=WeED04%20Apr%202008%2022%3A42%3A35%3A433




















Background

Factsheet

The situation: Teaching staff at the Bethnal Green Centre were informed in February 2008 that, from September 2008, the majority of weekday daytime classes offered there will have to move out to accommodate year 10 and 11 students from Bethnal Green Technology College. The Council says the move is necessary because the school is being redesigned through the Building Schools for the Future programme, with building work at the school scheduled to start in January 2009 and run for two years.
The decision was announced on the Council’s Idea Stores website, without prior consultation or notification to staff and students. See link to store: http:ideastore.co.uk/index/pd/718

In their efforts to halt the Council’s underhand plans, staff at the Bethnal Green Centre have obtained confirmation of the threat posed to the college in a document obtained under the Freedom of Infomation Act. The document is a record of minutes of a meeting (December 18 2007), at which Tower Hamlets Councillor Clair Hawkins was present. The minutes state

"It is now clear that: there is an expectation that the site would then be sold, with the proceeds placed within a general capital resource."

Kevin Collins, Corporate Director of Children's Services for Tower Hamlets, states in a letter to George Galloway (10 March 2008), "Yes there are plans for the future use of the Bethnal Green Centre and for the eventual disposal of the building.”

In a recent letter (Spring 2008) to studens Mr. Collins contradicts the content of his letter to George Galloway when he writes that, "Any suggestions that there are definite plans for the building to be sold are inaccurate.”

Mr. Collins also says that, "No life long learning classes will close" and goes on to explain how classes like upholstery, woodwork, silver jewellery making and stained glass work will be squeezed into the evening and weekend slots, effectively reducing their hours by two-thirds.”

Kevin Collins then details how classes are to be split up into satellite locations within the borough, thereby gradually removing the focal point or hub that the college provides for the community in E2.