Tuesday, December 06, 2005
School wellies
Council splashes out!
I see our good friend Cllr. Foreman is keeping up his track record as the most photographed "personality" in South Shields, with two entries in tonight's newspaper. One story featuring Cllr. Foreman which really caught my eye was the initiative announced by Biddick Hall Infants School to encourage more youngsters to walk to school, irrespective of the weather. This is a laudable idea! When I was a youngster, travelling to Barnes Road School by any other means was unthinkable, indeed it was probably impossible.
Yes, our parents were probably a bit more trusting in the early 1960's, and certainly there was much less traffic to contend with, and most of us lived within a stone's throw of the local school. Even at weekends we used to walk for miles with our parents, it was not unheard of for families to walk down to the town centre from Simonside or Whiteleas to do the shopping, and then walk all the way back again.
Congratulations to Myra Edwards for dreaming up this revolutionary idea and kitting out the children at Biddick Hall Infants with yellow plastic macs, colourful umbrellas, and wellies decorated with fun characters!. How nobody ever thought of it before is astounding. The reduction in exhaust gases, the improvements in children's health and fitness, the savings in fuel costs will all be beneficial to the community as a whole.
However, at a time when some services are to suffer under budgetary cuts, needy charities are to lose Council grants, the Council itself will not benefit greatly from Gordon Brown's handouts, we must question the ethics of giving GBP 400.00 to this scheme. I know this is hardly an astronomical amount of cash, but it sets a precedent for others to follow, and gives an impression that public money is available at the drop of a hat, when plainly it is not. We are making an unkind and untrue message by funding schemes such as this.
Where in the school - parent partnership do the parents' responsibilities lie? Should not the parents be reasonably expected to clothe their children in appropriate rainwear?
The proof of the pudding will be whether or not additional car parking spaces miraculously appear at the school the next time their is a downpour.
Floppy hats, factor 20 suncream, and Beckhamesque shades will be made available after Easter! Jumping Jimmy wellies will be made available to all Town Hall staff who wish to vacate their official car parks, leave the gas guzzling car at home, and walk to work! it's all yours, we don't mind paying at all!
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