Last updated 07:03, Sunday, 16 November 2008

THIS consultation is not about whether we have an academy or not, because that decision has already been taken.

The original idea was to have parents and people from the community come in and ask them to sit in smaller groups so that we did not lose everyone's opinion.

Sometimes people in big meetings get frightened about asking questions or giving an opinion.

We thought if we worked in smaller groups first and made people more confident about giving their opinion it may be a better way of conducting a meeting rather than having confrontation.

Quite clearly people were asked before they came in from a couple of OSANFS members not to sit at the tables but to go straight into the room.

So their views were there before we even started and that was a shame because we had facilitators around those tables from Children's Services sitting ready to put questions down and to try and get answers for people.

We are trying to improve facilities for our learners in Barrow.

It is absolutely imperative that our children can actually move forward to the 21st century and have the opportunity that other areas are having in these new facilities with computers and all the gear that goes with that, and the investment that would come on the back of that.

You are talking about over £100m in the education investment, with the academy, Barrow Sixth Form College and Furness College.

It’s a massive investment. We would not get that type of investment for another 20, 30, 40 years, and I think as responsible people we weren’t going to try and turn that down. You have to do something to try and improve the education facilities in this town and that is what we have been working towards for a long time.

If we could have got Building Schools for the Future money I think Barrow would have done well to go with that, but that avenue was closed to us at this time.

Our job is to try and listen to people and to try and have a judgement on whether the money will dry up or whether we are going to miss out big style or try and take the community with us.

There is no other avenue open to us for a massive investment to improve education facilities in the town.

We are looking at a massive investment.

If you walk away from that, and in 10 years our schools are crumbling what is the public going to say to us then?