TONGE: "SIXTH FORMS UNREALISTIC"

5.03.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 1st Apr 2003

Commenting on the failure of Richmond Council's secondary private finance initiative bid, Dr Jenny Tonge, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, placed the blame squarely on the Conservative Council's flawed plans to place sixth forms in the borough's secondary schools.

The MP said: "The meddling by the new Council is not acceptable to the Government. A sixth form in every school was never a realistic proposition. It would have involved students travelling between schools all day, to study different subjects."

"The Conservatives should now back and improve the work going on in the Tertiary College and recognise the tremendous results they get.

"All three of my children did their A-Levels at the College. We should be proud of having one of the top F.E. colleges in the country in Richmond."

"I'm also bitterly disappointed for the Borough's secondary schools, who will now have to wait for desperately needed improvements because of the Conservative administration's doctrinaire attachment to school sixth forms."