Friday, December 05, 2008

A dozen more Children's Centres - thanks to Labour!

I see Tory controlled Lincolnshire is to receive more millions in grants from the Labour Government to open another dozen SureStart Children's Centres across the county.

There's already two dozen SureStarts giving thousands of Lincolnshire children a better start in life - including one that opened in The Deepings earlier this year.

The Tories who run Lincolnshire are happy to grab the extra millions from the Government and then attempt to claim the credit for opening new SureStarts.

Ironic then that if David Cameron's Tories were ever trusted to run the country, they are pledged to CUT investment for SureStart Children's Centres.

And the investment is indeed truly staggering, particularly considering that not one of these Children's Centres existed before 1997.

I recall a debate on SureStarts at a county council meeting some time ago when I proudly welcomed a Government announcement of £30 million to cover three years running costs for the existing SureStarts in Lincolnshire.

A Tory councillor thought he had spotted an obvious gaffe and jumped to his feet, anxious to correct me...

"Councillor Dilks has just suggested that the Labour Government has allocated £30 million for running SureStart Children's Centres for this county. Surely the £30 million figure is for the whole country, not just for this county...perhaps Councillor Dilks would like to apologise for attempting to mislead this Council..."
Er, no.

I was happy to let a senior officer wipe the smile off his face by telling him that I was right on the money!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello.

I don't see why you are being party political on this Phil.

It's for the good of all.

fairdealphil said...

Hi Geoffrey,

I agree with you that provision of SureStart Children's Centres are for the good of all.

Personally, I believe they are one of the best achievements by Government over the past decade and were long overdue.

Regretably, the Conservatives under David Cameron's leadership are pledged to cutting funding for Children's Centres.

That's why I believe it is a party political issue and worth highlighting now with colleagues such as yourself:

If you value the work of Children's Centres as bringing benefits for all, hopefully you would have some influence in getting your own party leadership to recognise the benefits and change current Conservative Party policy.