Half-hearted Tories lashed

3.48.37pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 1st Oct 2003

Councillor Serge Lourie, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition on Richmond upon Thames Council has lashed the Tories for being half-hearted about the Secondary Schools' Private Finance Initiative.

Speaking after the Council Meeting (30-September) he said; "I was appalled by the comments by the Cabinet Member for Schools. He made it quite clear that he expects the secondary schools' PFI to fail. This defeatist attitude is no way to secure the much needed investment consent from the Government."

"He also suggested that he had fully consulted the Liberal Democrat Opposition about the bid. This is so far from the truth as to be breathtaking. We had a preliminary meeting with him and a colleague just after the failure of the first bid and have had no contact on this since then."

"The Liberal Democrats managed to secure significant funds for primary schools and residential homes through PFI. We also started the first Secondary bid which unfortunately just failed to be selected by Government. We fully recognise that much of the so called "black hole" in the Council relates to the secondary schools, and our proposal would have generated many tens of millions of pounds of investment."

We believe that the secondary schools need to be modernised. I fear that the Conservatives are going a funny way about getting our support for this crucial investment."