Crunch time approaches

The long awaited cabinet report on the possibilities for the schools in the south of the Borough is available to councillors today and to the public tomorrow. The meeting of cabinet next week will be held in the Library Lecture theatre after all, with the furniture suitably rearranged to accommodate the sizeable public presence that's expected.
The report is not all we'd hoped by any means. It lays out very clearly the options on school sizes. It encourages cabinet to discount some of the sites which were proposed by people because they're too small or they haven't got reasonable access or they would be far too expensive. But it leaves open the option of Prestion Park, despite the fact that in order to accommodate the necessary playing fields etc it would need not just the overflow car park, not just a significant part of the south field but also the Quarry Rd Allotments. The report claims that building in the park could enhance the visual amenity. Which planet do these people live on? We have over 2500 signatures on a petition from people who'd disagree with that opinion. More than 300 people packed Trinity Methodist Church last week to voice their disagreement.
Today we found out that our Labour MP is still telling people that it would only be on the overflow car park and that it's the councillors' fault for not contacting her to tell her what they thought!! She gets money from our taxes to pay office staff to do the work for her like contacting residents. What does she spend it on? Certainly not quality research.
We'll be at the cabinet meeting next week to argue the case against Preston Park and to call on the cabinet to reject the proposal. It needs to be buried here and now.
Other options being suggested are moving Conyers to Ingleby Barwick and Egglescliffe onto the Conyers site. So instead of pupils travelling off Ingleby we'd have the same emissions or worse of pupils travelling to Ingleby and through the Yarm traffic jam. Hey ho! It's a topsy turvey world we live in.