A demonstration and petition on Monday gave local people the chance to have their voices heard on the Governments devastating cuts to Adult Education in Somerset.
West Somerset Labour collected signatures for what will form part of a county wide petition to the Government. Somerset Skills and learning has lost a whopping 97% of its funding and its future is really hanging in the balance.
Feelings Running High
West Somerset Labour Party secretary Kathrine See said “Feelings are understandably running high about this. One 82year old lady told me that she had never attended a protest before in her life but is so appalled by what has happened she felt she had to act. Many of our local elderly population rely on these courses for social interaction as well as keeping their brains active. Stopping the courses may have a devastating effect on their health and wellbeing”.
Maureen Smith Chair of West Somerset Labour Party stated that “This appalling loss of funding to Adult Education on such a dramatic scale will have a very detrimental effect of any future economic regeneration of the area. People need to take action if they feel strongly about this and want to save Adult Education in Minehead”.
Further details of what people can do to help the campaign can be found on West Somerset Labour Parties Face Book page or by emailing westsomersetlabour@gmail.com
Does anyone else believe the same as I do? This was a set up, to save £4+ million, they probably were hoping to get away with it at best or if they didn’t get away with it, the funding could be drastically reduced, in the hope that they could get away with it. I base my belief on what happened to Somerset County Enterprises, the workshops for disabled people, where many could be trained in a variety of skills and introduced back into open employment, it was also ‘Privatised’ and then the Councils Senior Management sat by and watched it slowly die, leaving around 60 disabled people unemployed.