PFI decision now costing us dearly

ONE thing we do have for our children is an education system. In Bridgend county borough it is poorly funded, and additional cuts threaten to further undermine education provision.

What is frustrating is the total disregard of cause and effect contained in the words of disgust from two councillors. These councillors, with former party colleagues, played integral parts in ensuring the funding of our borough schools lie 21st out of 22 Welsh authorities, supporting everything their Labour party instigated.

They must take their share of this poor education funding shame in our borough.

It is acceptable to say nobody has a crystal ball when making decisions, but surely when it comes to saving money, perhaps Labour councillors should look at the cause and effect of having to re-pay an inflated £67m for the PFI school in Maesteg. A school that could have been built at half the price had the Labour government chosen to fund it from government coffers. Take a look at other school building projects across Wales as evidence.

Damningly, no Labour representative – MP, AM or councillors – challenged the Labour government which forced this needlessly expensive PFI project upon our local population. What a reward for returning Labour MPs to Parliament for more than a century!

Our Labour councillors, including those who have now swapped rosettes, supported this venture.

Today the exorbitant repayments for an overpriced campus that is not fully operational are costing us dearly. Perhaps the significant £5m savings could have been found without the pain of redundancies. Perhaps the borough would not be 21st in funding education, were it not for the cost of repaying private business at least double the value of the construction’s true worth.

Remember, Labour enforced this expensive scheme, fully endorsed it, and the subsequent inflated cost of repayment is firmly placed at their feet; including the new independents who now cry “outrage”. Dai Berry Plaid Cymru Community Councillor