House Notes

I have previously raised the issue of a lack of good secondary school places available in Three Rivers. We have excellent schools but there are not enough places to go round. This year, we saw many families, particularly in the Croxley area, not getting a place in one of their preferred schools. Understandably, parents and pupils are upset.

In recent months, I have had a series of meetings on the subject. This has involved meeting with head teachers, school governors, parents, Government civil servants, shadow ministers, councillors and council officials. The intention is to find a way in which we can address this problem so that local children can get a place at a good local school.

There are various options. One that has long been discussed is trying to expand Rickmansworth School by taking an additional class per year. But the latest numbers I have seen suggest that this won’t be enough to cope with rising demand for school places.

In fact, the latest demographic projections suggest that the problem is going to be even more acute than we previously thought. New developments and a rising birth rate in Watford and Three Rivers suggest that we face a serious and sustained shortfall of secondary school spaces by 2014.

The answer has to be a new school somewhere in the Rickmansworth area. Generally, we don’t build many new schools in this country but, I am pleased to say that Michael Gove, the Shadow Schools Secretary has said that a Conservative Government will make it easier to do this.

I have always said we need to make sure that we expand the number of good school places in the area. It is now clear that the answer has to be to build a new school and I will be campaigning to ensure that this happens.

The period before the Queen’s Speech is a slightly disjointed time in Parliament. Various Bills complete their Parliamentary process and sometimes we end up with ‘Parliamentary ping-pong’. This involves a Bill being sent backwards and forwards between the Commons and Lords until there is agreement. At times, this can go on for several hours as the process has to be completed before the end of the session. Consequently, if you here of MPs and Lords staying up to the early hours ‘playing Parliamentary ping-pong’, please don’t take this as another example of decadent politicians having fun!

The economy continues to dominate the political scene. As a member of the Conservative Treasury frontbench team, there is plenty to do. In the past week, I have been speaking on the Child Poverty Bill, the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill (on measures to do with the National Audit Office), a debate on financial services regulation, a conference on international tax and a seminar on public spending. One of the problems of being a frontbencher is being over-specialised but there appears to be little danger of that at the moment.

At the time of writing, I am shortly due to be visiting Harvey Road Primary School. I always enjoy visiting schools and, particularly at primary schools, the pupils are enthusiastic and bursting with questions. I make an annual visit to Harvey Road and always get a grilling from the school council on local and national issues. From past experience, the questioning is always lively. Is there a future Jeremy Paxman living in Croxley?