13 million pounds for bankers free school

15 December 2010

Senior bankers fromNM Rothschild, JP Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse, Citi Group, Barclays Capital, Coutts, Normura, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and from Alchemy Partners Private Equity, Cenkos Securities and Lyceum Capital support using public funds for new "bankers "free" school"

GMB, the union for education support staff, is urging the Lib Dem partners in the coalition government to pull the plug on public spending to support a new "bankers "free" school" in Northcote ward in Battersea.

The Tory Party in control of Wandsworth council plan to use £13m of public funds to acquire the closed Bolingbroke Hospital as the site for a new secondary school although there are surplus places in the existing secondary schools in the borough. It will require further public funds to turn it into a school and will cost in excess of £6m from public funds a year to run it.

The 2010 Lib Dem Conference voted to oppose the Tory policy of allowing new "free" schools to be set up by parents and others free from local authority control while being funded by public funds.

When St Georges Hospital Trust put in a planning application to develop the Bolingbroke site to maximize the sale price the promoters of the "free" school urged their supporters to lodge objections. 29 bankers and private equity people have lodged objection with Wandsworth Council and support the "free" school. They work for banks like NM Rothschild, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Citi Group, Barclays Capital, Coutts, Normura Investment Bank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and for financial companies like Alchemy Partners Private Equity, Cenkos Securities and Lyceum Capital.

The names of objectors are already published on the Wandsworth Council website. Below are listed the local bankers and financiers objectors who support the "bankers "free" school". Their facebook supporters group contains the names of four others from the finance sector.

Council objectors

Martin Wygas
Investment Executive, Lyceum Capital

Jacqueline Wygas
Royal Bank of Scotland

Helen Wyles
Deputy Director, Euromoney Conferences

Edward Squire
Vice President, JP Morgan Cazenove, Investment Bank

Sue Smith
Sales Executive, Europe, Middle East & Africa,
JP Morgan

John Rowland
Finance Director, Alchemy Partners Private Equity company

Laurence Ryan
Risk Manager, HSBC

Marco Gregotti
Executive Director, Morgan Stanley

Karen Gent
HR Business Partner, Credit Suisse

Julian Morse
International Equities, Cenkos Securities

Jean-Maurice Ladure
Head of Investment Strategy Europe, Coutts

Andrew Lennox
Vice President, Central Government, Capgemini

Julian Morgan
Partner, Advovo Wealth Management LLP

Iain O'Neill
BarCap

Andy Henderson
Vice President, Domestic GL Strategy, JPMorgan Chase

Heiko Krakowitzer
Director, Citi Group

Louise Parker
Underwriter, Arch Insurance Europe

James Howells
Executive Director & Assistant General Counsel, Legal Department, JP Morgan

Evelyn Hunter
Barclays Private Equity

Ian George
Nomura Investment Bank

Ed Duggan
JP Morgan

Leigh Enevoldson
Director, NM Rothschild

Tracey Appleby
Equity Syndicate, Nomura Securities

James Ashwell
Vice President, Morgan Stanley

Sam Cosh
Senior Fund Manager, F&C Investments

Jonathan Conway
Director, Barclays Capital

Frances Bailey
Executive Director, Morgan Stanley

Debbie Checketts
Head of Operational Risk, CMC Markets, Forex broker & spread betting company

Andrea Coiro
Director, Barclays Capital

Facebook supporters

Simon De Maria
Corporate/Commercial Banker

Lena de Silva
JPMorgan Chase

Laurent Develay
Portfolio Manager Emerging Local Debt at Fortis Investments

Dermot Grenham
Actuary at Government Actuary's Department

Paul Maloney GMB Regional Officer representing school support staff in Wandsworth said "The bankers who were "bailed out" with £850 billions of public funds have acquired a taste for using public money to fund their pet projects. 30 of them have gone public on the councils website supporting the "bankers "free" school" in Battersea.

The Tory Party in Wandsworth have announced that they plan to spend £13m acquiring the site for the school. It will require further public funds to turn it into a school and will cost in excess of £6m from public funds a year to run it.

This spending on the bankers "free" school is a disgrace as there are surplus places in the existing secondary schools in the borough. These existing schools are in desperate need for capital investment to upgrade and maintain them and the funds to do this work have been cut. Millions have been cut from the Building Schools for the Future programme which would have revitalised several Wandsworth schools including Chestnut Grove, Graveney, Elliott and Burntwood. ( See recent press release from Wandsworth Save our Schools below)

It is now clear that the self selected group promoting this school plan a catchment area that will exclude pupils from poorer families from the nearby Winstanley estate while selecting pupils from more affluent families from Wix Laneschool which is further away. GMB will call on the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate this proposed exclusion of the children of poorer families if this school gets any further.

The record of the Tory Party managing school sites for parents in the borough is very poor and is akin to asset stripping. Clapham County School for Girls and Hearnville primary are now private schools while Spencer Park, Latchmere and Henrietta Thornton schools are now luxury housing estates. There is a net shortage of primary school places in the Northcote area and if Wandsworth has the funds to acquire the Bolingbroke site they should consult parents on opening a community primary school on that site.

The Liberal Democrats party's conference in Liverpool in September 2010 overwhelmingly backed a motion that attacked free schools because they risk "increasing social divisiveness and inequity in a system that is already unfair ".The Liberal Democrats in the coalition must pull the plug on this bankers "free" school which is the ultimate in inequity."

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