SAVE WEDGWOOD MEMORIAL COLLEGE
To all who would like to save the Wedgwood Memorial College (WMC) from closure
Links to the Business Plan, the City Council's Reply and other supporting documents are at the bottom of this page.
Some of you will know that the College may be closed, permanently, from 31st March 2012. You may also know that a group of ‘stakeholders’ (five charities working in partnership with WMC over many years) have produced a Business Plan to enable Community Asset Transfer (CAT) for the WMC to be run by an Independent Educational Trust, releasing the City of Stoke-on-Trent of its financial commitment and College deficit from 1st April 2012.
On 15th November , the new Trust was informed that its Plan had been rejected and so the authority’s proposal is to close the College as above. We did not receive the reasons for the rejection, in writing, until Monday 28th November.
Hence, with the consultation period on these proposals ending on 23rd December 2011 we have an extremely short time for our campaign to save the College. (The final decision on the City Council’s budget plans, within which this closure proposal is contained, will be made on 28th February 2012.
We know that it is possible that our campaign may be successful but we also know that this goal will only be achieved if there is a huge response to our appeal below.
So please support our campaign by sending this message, as recommended:
The proposal to close Wedgwood College should be withdrawn, with immediate consultations involving all relevant parties on the Business Plan prepared by five charity stakeholders. This plan is open to amendment and improvement to ensure that a revived WMC may continue to build on its strengths, saving the City money in this process.
Please send this message (cut and paste) by e-mail to selected MPs, Councillors below preferably adding your own comments and testimony. We recommend, in addition to your name, you state where you are from (city, town or village) and saying just a little about yourself (do not be too modest), especially any voluntary activities you have been or are involved with. CAT means ‘community asset’ and your personal community asset should carry weight. Sending your message to your own constituency MP will help too, given that WMC is a national asset.
e-mail addresses below……With your mouse left click in the top box and drag down the list to select all the addresses. Right click and then copy and paste the email addresses of these elected representatives into your email address bar. The list includes Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire MPs, West Midlands MEPs, Stoke on Trent City Council Cabinet and Staffordshire County Council Cabinet Member Ian Parry.
campaign@savewmc.org;
flellor@parliament.uk;
tristramhunt@parliament.uk;
walleyj@parliament.uk;
mcconaloguej@parliament.uk;
mohammed.pervez@stoke.gov.uk;
paul.shotton@stoke.gov.uk;
janine.bridges@stoke.gov.uk;
debra.gratton@stoke.gov.uk;
olwen.hamer@stoke.gov.uk;
gwen.hassall@stoke.gov.uk;
sarah.hill@stoke.gov.uk;
adrian.knapper@stoke.gov.uk;
mark.meredith@stoke.gov.uk;
ruth.rosenau@stoke.gov.uk;
ian.parry@staffordshire.gov.uk;
pbrannon@torymeps.com;
michaelcashman@phonecoop.coop;
malcolm.harbour@europarl.europa.eu;
lizlynne@cix.co.uk;
ukipnatty@hotmail.com;
info@nikkimep.org;
The attachments, content indicated, may help you with any further information, as background and for guidance on priorities for the campaign. The web-site www.savewmc.org will shortly be our official web-site resource. Please feel free to support the campaign by using any of the attachments, including a copy of this e-mail to others who may wish to support us.
Thank- you from the team of seven leading this campaign on behalf of the five charities:
Friends of Wedgwood Memorial College
Esperanto Association of Britain
Arnold Bennett Society
Raymond Williams Foundation
Workers Education Association (WEA)
We’d very much welcome other WMC-user charities and organizations joining with us for the campaign and for future partnership arrangements with the new WMC. If you would like a member of the campaign team to contact you, please e-mail us on campaign@savewmc.org leaving your name and telephone number.
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If you want to know the reasons to save WMC. click here
How it all went Wrong at the WMC is itemised here
A Summary of our Business Plan. click here
The City Council 's Rejection and Feedback to our Business Plan. click here
Our Campaign's Response to the City Council's Feeback here
Background to the Community Asset Transfer here