Schools Sports Partnerships: Heartbreaking

“It is heartbreaking to see a country do this to its children”*

(* Quote from Andy Marchant, SSP co-ordinator for Brighton and Hove, in the Guardian, Saturday 20th November)

You may have heard that Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove made the decision, without consultation, to scrap Labour’s Schools Sports Partnerships.

This decision will affect every state school in Brighton and Hove. The city’s School Sports Partnership (SSP), co-ordinated from Dorothy Stringer School, involved all 72 schools in the city including schools for children with special needs. All £320,000 of funding for the scheme will be stopped.

Ten thousand children participate in the 64 additional activities added to the core PE curriculum by the SSP. The nationally acclaimed “sport for all” programme runs after-school clubs, inter-schools competitions and dance and sports festivals. Nineteen thousand children and young people took part in this year’s Brighton and Hove School Sports Festival.

In 1997, just one in four school children were doing two hours per week of PE. In 2010, 95% of children are participating in healthy sporting activities. The Government is pulling the plug on a highly successful scheme which works to reduce growing levels of childhood obesity and enhances children’s engagement with education.

Once again, the budget deficit is used as an excuse to make ideologically-motivated cuts.  The deficit was caused by failures in the financial system triggering a recession. It’s not fair, or necessary, for children to pay for these failures. Savings can be made without jeopardising the health and wellbeing of young people.

However you look at it, it’s a poor decision.

It was Labour which introduced Schools Sports Partnerships, and Labour will fight it in Brighton and Hove. Gove was forced to back down and return some of the funding he took away from Labour’s children’s playground refurbishment programme. We can do the same again for sport in schools. Our online petition attracted hundreds of signatures in just a few days. Add your signature by visiting tinyurl.com/37k89kx.

Read more about the work done by the SSP in Brighton and Hove, and what we will lose, at guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/20/schools-sports-funding-cuts-gove. And join the national Facebook group Save School Sport Partnerships.

Today, headteachers are launching a campaign of opposition to the move, as featured in the Observer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/28/school-sport-partnerships-abolition-gove. Opposition really is growing, and there is a good chance with your support that we can get Gove to back down.

Bus Service Subsidies Cut

The Council revealed that they are planning to reduce subsidies to bus services across the city by £600,000. This money has been used to provide services which don't necessarily have enough usage to make them financially viable independently, but are vital for connecting neighbourhoods with the city centre. Services in this area under threat are the 21, 21B, 37, 81, 81A and 22. We will be challenging the Council on this. The previous Labour Council developed the excellent bus service that we have in Brighton and Hove today which is essential for reducing car usage and congestion, and we will defend it.

On the Doorstep, Saturday 27th November

Well, given the conditions, all I can say is how great it was that a few people dared to open their doors on what must surely have been the coldest day of the year! It was so cold it was hard to think straight. However, we managed a few streets before retiring to the Bib and Tucker, where I had an interesting chat with the manager about various issues around licensing in the city. Here we are, Pete Gillman, standing in St Peter's and North Laine on the left, myself on the right.

Lewes Road for Clean Air

Last night I went to the AGM of the Lewes Road for Clean Air, a community group started about a year ago. The Bike Train is a project within the same group, and most of the people at the AGM were regulars on the Bike Train. There was a lot of real enthusiasm for the Bike Train, which is great for students and staff at the universities who make the journey from Brighton to Falmer several times a week. Getting together into a group and cycling together makes for a safer ride. However, not everyone is a fan as the Bike Train can slow down the flow of traffic. The Bike Train highlights the need for a safer cycling experience, and the city needs to develop better cycleways, but what we really need is to do a variety of things so that cyclists and traffic can move freely without battling for the same space. That includes measures to reduce the volume of traffic like Park and Ride.

One idea discussed last night is the feasibility of using the university car parks as a weekend park and ride, along with bus services along the Lewes Road. This sounds like something really worth pursuing, since the costs are small and it would reduce traffic and emissions along the narrow, built-up Lewes Road.

Huge support for Labour in Brighton and Hove

This chart shows votes at May's General Election across all three Brighton and Hove constituencies. Although the Labour MPs lost their seats, all the results were close, and combined across the city Labour only won 500 fewer votes than the Conservatives.

Membership of Labour has soared following the General Election, and to date over 200 people have joined the Labour party in Brighton Pavilion alone. Activism is growing, as more and more people realise that something must be done to show opposition to the actions of the Tory Lib-Dem government.

Hanover Action for Sustainable Living

Last night was the first anniversary of Hanover Action for Sustainable Living, a community group that started up after a showing of The Age of Stupid at Hanover Community Centre.

HASL have got involved in a number of different activities, including film showings, composting initiatives, promoting the 10:10 campaign and running a Food Group. There's a lot of effort going in to keeping it fresh and encouraging new people to get involved. From the buzz last night it seemed to be paying off.

Caroline Lucas was the guest speaker, and her comments about sustainability and politicial will were interesting, although I would have liked to have heard more about how she feels she as a Green MP can make an actual difference in practice to the environmental impact of this country, or her constituency.

The event has certainly given me a few new ideas to think about over the next few months. Watch this space!

Sharon Hodgson MP

Shadow Education Minister Sharon Hodgson MP (left) was in Brighton last week, for a meeting regarding the Brightstart Nursery. She spoke to Labour members at a meeting at the Hanover pub, together with Labour Group leader Councillor Gill Mitchell. It was a great opportunity to hear about some of her values, and what she feels the challenges are for the Opposition over the next few years. Sharon was appointed by Shadow Secretary of State for Education Andy Burnham, whom we heard a lot about during the leadership election. I was impressed with Andy and felt he holds many traditional Labour values - and acted on them as Secretary of State for Health, including setting a tougher line against outsourcing.