 Anger Over Jeremy Hunt's Outrageous Comments About Woodlands Meed SEN School
21st December 2016
By Peter Chapman
Cllr Jeremy Hunt - Cabinet member for finance at West Sussex County Council, has come under fire from a fellow county councillor, along with parents and governors at Woodlands Meed for comments made at a meeting of the full council last Friday.
What Did Jeremy Say?
 Cllr Hunt was responding to a question from Cllr Anne Jones about the state of the facilities at the Woodland Meed college site and the future of bringing the college and school sites together as one.
On the issue of remedial work at the college site, Cllr Hunt made the extrodinary comment of 'the school are now asking for fancy extra bits' with regards to the request for expected facilities to enable disabled pupils to be able to be educated at the college site!
He then went on to say: 'If we are not careful, we will lose the window to get this work completed by next September,.... but because of the problems being put forward by these various parties, it is delaying the progress of that."
Listen Here:
Cllr Sue Mullins Responds
 Follow Cllr Hunt's comments. Cllr Sue Mullins (Labour,
Gossops Green and Ifield East) took exception to the comment about 'fancy extra bits'.
Cllr Mullins said: "Special needs children have special needs and need special equipment and special space, and at the moment, from the stuff that we've been reading, this is not happening for these particularly vulnerable children.
"And I would ask, why did we close Court Meadow school if we did not have suitable buildings for these children to move into where they could access a proper education?
"Children get one chance only, you waste one year or two years in their life, they can never, ever get it back. We are now paying the price because the children from Orchard House are bussed all over the place to go to school when they had a school right nextdoor on their doorstep."
Listen Here:
Parents Complain
Woodlands Meed parent Deborah Eyre listened to Cllr Hunts comments on the WSCC webcast and decided to write him a letter:
...I am extremely upset and angry at your apparent lack of care and knowledge about what this school is all about.
How dare you say that the we as parents have been asking for ‘fancy add on’s’. The children at this school would above all else like to do without fancy wheelchairs, fancy hoists that can lift them from A to B when necessary, they would love to be able to walk into a ‘normal’ WC alone and not suffer the indignity of being assisted by others and the fancy equipment that we have asked to be provided in a modern specialist school.
You can read Deborah's full letter to Cllr Hunt on the 'Complete Woodlands Meed' Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/CompleteWM/posts/245242039229433
Court Meadow school remains empty, prime land to be sold for housing with the proceeds going towards completing the full Woodlands Meed site.
Spread the word, Cllr Jeremy Hunt believes Woodlands Meed are holding up improvements by asking for 'Fancy Extra Bits'
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 Got an opinion on this story? Leave a comment below.....
What do you think of Jeremy Hunt's comments? Is asking for hoists really a 'fancy extra bit'? Why do the WSCC cabinet and leader think that new mobile classrooms are the seemingly long-term solution where there are a number of other things on which they are failing the 14-19 year-olds on?
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