Richard Ottaway MP: Press releasses

PRESS RELEASE

10 May 2004

OTTAWAY CALLS IN THE OMBUDSMAN OVER NURSERY FUNDING

Richard Ottaway, Conservative MP for Croydon South, has expressed his dismay at the latest attempts by Croydon Council to resolve the nursery funding crisis and has referred the issue to the Local Government Ombudsman.

"In view of the mounting chaos I consider it appropriate to refer the entire matter
to the Local Government Ombudsman. There has been a breach of the Council's
statutory obligations which needs to be investigated".

"Croydon Council has now acknowledged the impact on families of its failure to
fully fund nursery education for all three year olds".

"In a separate development the Director of Education, Peter Wylie, has
advised me (see letter) that in order to meet its statutory obligations the
Council will either have to spread the existing money more thinly or seek more
funding from the Government".

"The Government position is that sufficient funding has been given to Croydon
Council which has clearly failed to budget for it. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not
an acceptable way to approach this matter. That such financial
mismanagement by the Labour run Council is now affecting so many of
Croydon's young families' is a matter of great concern to me".

"This is a shocking state of affairs which need to be examined at the highest level
and the matter will be referred to the Local Government Ombudsman."

ENDS

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