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Chronicle fights for funds to Support Our Schools

The Bath Chronicle has launched its Support Our Schools campaign in a bid to persuade the Government to make local school buildings a priority for renovations and upgrades.

The paper wants school buildings in Bath and north east Somerset brought up to scratch for the 21st century though funding from the Government’s Building Schools for the Future initiative.

It hopes to secure as much as £150m for secondary schools from the 15-year scheme and also aims to raise awareness of building issues facing many of the area’s primary schools in the long term.

The Chronicle plans to visit local schools and speak to headteachers about their needs and is asking readers to write to their local MP in support of the campaign.

News editor Paul Wiltshire said: “Hopefully it will be a short, sharp campaign because we want our schools to be made a priority and be improved sooner rather than later.

“We’re encouraging people to write to their MPs who have already backed the campaign and to us. We will compile our own dossier which we will get to education secretary Charles Clarke or his ministers.”

A comment column in the paper read: “To its credit, the Government has realised that major spending is needed to bring the country’s secondary schools up to scratch.

“Its Building Schools for the Future programme will unlock undreamed of amounts of money for new campuses, expansion schemes and refurbishment.

“The Bath area could get as much as £150m and be among the first to be funded if the local case is put strongly enough. And that’s the big if that has prompted us to launch the Support Our Schools campaign.

“We need to persuade the Government to look beyond the cliched preconceptions about Bath to see that the fabric of our educational facilities needs serious attention.

“We may have world-famous Georgian architecture to be proud of, but too many of our children are being educated in buildings of which we should be ashamed.

“It’s time to start laying the foundations for a better future.”

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