Durham Council has invested just £2.5m of council money in council owned schools since 2010. This year it budgeted NOTHING! The Coalition Government on the other hand provided County Durham schools with £139m for school maintenance and repair since 2010. Labour insulted our children in their council budget by failing to invest in repairs.

We put forward a proposal to provide £13m of investment to make sure our children could be taught in safe, draught free, leak free schools.

The Lib Dem plan was fully costed and included reducing the council’s six publicity departments. Council officers confirmed our plans. Labour refused. So do Labour think 6 PR departments are more important than fixing leaking school buildings??

Labour councillors even voted against allowing schools to have loans to do work, right after saying they agreed with us. We are going to fight back against this Labour failure. Our children’s education must come first.