PARENTS campaigning for more funding for Wokingham’s schools have been left bitterly disappointed after the issue was left out of the autumn budget yesterday.
Campaigners, including Wokingham mum Annabel Yoxall, had written to the Chancellor Philip Hammond MP asking him to give their concerns ‘serious consideration’ in the autumn budget.
But they were left disappointed after Mr Hammond failed to address school funding shortages in his budget speech on Wednesday.
Mrs Yoxall had met with Wokingham MP John Redwood to discuss the issues in October, where she urged him to write to the Chancellor explaining how the funding shortages are affecting local schools.
However, Mrs Yoxall says that Mr Redwood failed to raise her concerns effectively, and that he did not include a request to return £2bn to the Department of Education budget.
In a letter to the Chancellor, Mrs Yoxall said: “During the meeting we highlighted our specific concerns and identified some of the key areas where we are seeing the impact of the cuts on our schools. We specifically requested that he ask you to return the £2bn to the Department of Education budget to reverse the school cuts of the last two years and fund our schools properly.
“John Redwood has failed to send you a letter that represents this meeting, and he has failed to raise our concerns effectively on behalf of our schools in Wokingham Borough.
“We anticipate that you will be giving serious consideration to the impact these funding cuts are having on our schools and would expect to see this reflected in the Autumn budget.”
The budget pledged a £600 boost to schools for each pupil taking maths at A-Level.
