Leicester City Council has decided that their councillor’s pay rise is more important than the education of disabled pupils aged 16 to 19 years old. From July 2024, Leicester City Council will scrap financial support and transport for pupils aged 16 to 19 years old in Leicester. The move will affect the most vulnerable children in our communities.
It is high-time for Leicester City Council, the Labour run council and our councillors, including Labour mayor, Peter Soulsby, provided us, the tax-paying residents of Leicester a frank, unequivocal explanation behind their decision to take away this crucial funding in favour of lining their own self-serving pockets; on what basis, legal or otherwise, have they elected to take away education services and support from disabled pupils who need it most?
The Council, who recently announced that the city will declare bankruptcy next quarter and that our council tax is to sky rocket by 5%, has said that it will “consider” requests from parents “who believe” their children have exceptional circumstances. Well, that’s big of them, isn’t it? Whilst their pay packets go up, whilst they increase our council tax, whilst they take away public services, it’s OK because they’ll consider your request if you believe your children are an “exceptional circumstance”!
This change affects more than 450 pupils who live greater than three miles away from their school; quite often, the local schools in the 3 mile catchment area simply do not have the SEND support to help their special educational needs students to be able to complete their studies with the same opportunities for outcome as children who do not have any additional needs.
The consultation, which was opposed by the public taxpayer in all areas, was completely disregarded over the decisions the Councillors decided were more important than those who they are elected to serve.
Leicester City Council attribute the cuts to wider-government funding cuts, I can’t see how they can justify this when there’s plenty of money to give them all a pay rise! There’s enough money to waste on vandalising building in the city in the name of “art”, there’s enough money to waste on the Five-Ways Junction after over a year of roadworks for it to be deemed inadequate but there isn’t enough money to ensure that disabled pupils receive their education? There isn’t enough money to protect the rights of children in Leicester?
Something is stinky around City Hall and the sooner our politicians are brought to task over their selfish attitudes the better, where they look out for number one and their pals and family. This shouldn’t be the case, it’s time to stop electing councillors who cannot demonstrate their commitment to the benefit of the public.
According to the BBC, Esther Cameron, a parent affected by the change, said “There has been no consideration… to our son’s specific needs” and continued, “The email we received… declined our application and offered travel to a destination where there are no public transport links.”
Clearly, this further disadvantages Esther and other parents. Being given support to travel to destinations where there are no forward public transport links to the school serves only to inconvenience pupils and their parents and indirectly discriminates against those with additional education needs.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Leicester City Council have been accused of enforcing policies that discriminate against marginalised communities. It is repeatedly alleged that Leicester City Council discriminate against employees in minority groups and as early as 1999, Leicester City Council proudly declared the existence of institutionalised racism within the organisation.
After the recent racism and anti-semitism scandals that plague Labour, it is no surprise to find their Labour-run councils are no different. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, apparently. Claudia Webb, Labour MP in Leicester was found guilty of harassment after threatening an acid against against the partner of her friend and Keith Vaz, pervert Labour MP serving Leicester was revealed to be feeding vulnerable male prostitutes with cocaine and other drugs during sordid sex parties are just some of the councillors we have to endure running our city… Is it any wonder why our city is in such a sorry state economically?