Members of the Fair Funding for Borough Schools campaign are urging residents to ‘keep up the pressure’ on the council ahead of a meeting on Tuesday.
Lib Dem Councillor, Simon Werner, is supporting campaigners for fair funding of the Borough’s Schools
The group has been campaigning against the borough’s decision on Tuesday, April 28 to award £480,000 of developer funding to Holyport College.
Catherine del Campo, one of the protesters, has been given the opportunity to speak at the full council meeting at Maidenhead Town Hall after a petition she launched on behalf of the group received 1,616 signatures.
It asked the council to revoke the decision to award £480,000 to the free school in Ascot Road, and the decision to advance council funds before developer funding had been received.
The group has voiced concern at the decision-making process, which it says saw the money awarded unfairly over council-run schools.
“The issues speak for themselves,” said Mrs del Campo.
“The only difficult thing is getting the speech down to five minutes.
“We could talk for half-an-hour just on the outstanding questions we have.”
Mrs del Campo, of Oaken Grove, said the topic has developed great interest as ‘people feel passionate about this’ and believe the council are allowing schools to ‘drift’.
She added: “We feel the council still has a duty to those schools.”
Cllr Simon Werner (Lib Dem, Pinkneys Green) has also submitted a motion which will be debated and voted on at the meeting.
He said: “The purpose is to make sure all schools have the opportunity to bid for Section 106 money (developer funding), and that the public can see an audit trail to see decisions are made fairly.”
Cllr Werner said he felt there was more to it than getting the decision revoked.
He said: “We needed to make sure that kind of stuff doesn’t happen again.
“Councillors don’t just need to do everything in the right way, but they need to be seen making the right decisions, too.”
The meeting will be held at the Desborough Suite in Maidenhead Town Hall from 7.30pm.
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