Aled Richards-Jones
Barrister, Wandsworth Councillor and Leader of the Conservative Group on Wandsworth Borough CouncilThe Labour-run council’s proposals to close Bradstow School resulted in a walk-out of Conservative councillors at a recent council meeting. The background to that walk out was a long run of rule changes introduced by the Labour administration which has stifled democratic debate at the town hall.
Conservative Councillors Stage Unprecedented Walk Out
On Wednesday 5 February 2025, Conservative councillors on Wandsworth Council walked out of a council meeting. The issue that brought things to a head was the Labour administration’s proposed closure of Bradstow School, a council-run special needs school, and the abuse of procedure to stop debate on the closure. The backdrop was a long and disturbing run of rule abuses and changes introduced to stifle debate since Labour won the council in 2022.
Bradstow School’s Unique Offering
Bradstow School is a maintained special school, residential and care facility for children with severe intellectual disabilities who are on the autistic spectrum. The majority are non-verbal. Its quality of education has been rated outstanding by Ofsted for many years, as recently as July 2024. Wandsworth Council maintains the school, but it is located on a spacious site in Broadstairs in East Kent, allowing an inner London borough to offer a residential setting by the sea with a rare combination of facilities, from a library, swimming pool, parent/carer house, interactive soft play and sensory rooms, to an interactive bicycle track, pottery, all weather football pitch and sensory garden. Pupils from Wandsworth and other councils attend the school.
The Contested Claims About Bradstow’s Viability
The administration cites financial pressures as its reason for the proposed closure. Conservative councillors have called for the council to explore ways to help the school’s financial position – for example, by recovering unpaid fees from other councils which place children at the school, academisation, or the establishment of a joint local authority operating company with other councils who send children to Bradstow. The GMB union has called for the blunter solution of the Council taking direct control of the school.[1]
The school’s board of governors disagrees with the planned closure and is anxious to work with the council to address its financial issues. A petition against closure currently stands at 1,700.
Debate on the Closure was Blocked
The consultation on closure ends on 16 February 2025. At no point have all councillors been given the opportunity to discuss, or even receive a briefing on, the proposed closure.
With the clocking running down on Bradstow School’s fate, on Wednesday evening, the Conservative group put down a motion[2] calling on the administration to pause the closure consultation and explore ways of restoring financial viability. But contrary to usual practice, the motion was placed at the end of the council meeting agenda, meaning that it would not come up for debate before the 10pm cut-off. The Conservative group sought compromises to bring the motion further up the agenda, but these were voted down by the Labour majority. The Conservative group then walked out in protest.
The Debate Shut-down was Part of a Series of Anti-Democratic Moves
Since winning the council in May 2022, the Labour administration has imposed various rules changes, including:
- Scrapping all debates without notice at council: this means that cabinet members councillors can always pre-script their answers, and never be called on to give their honest, off-the-cuff answers.
- Scrapping the ability for the opposition to call committee meetings on urgent or important matters, and denying the opposition its statutory right to add items to the committee agenda and have them debated: this has prevented Conservative councillors from raising important issues on behalf of residents.
- Using the council’s politically neutral press and communications teams to pump out party political propaganda, in breach of section 2 of the Local Government Act 1986: this serious legal breach has happened repeatedly, has been acknowledged by council officers and, at the insistence of Conservative councillors, has been documented in Council papers.
- Cutting the number of oral questions which the Leader of the Opposition can ask the Council Leader to just two, reducing the administration’s exposure to difficult questions.
- Scrapping the ability for the opposition to bring contentious planning applications to full council.
In isolation, these might feel like arcane or obscure issues. But the events surrounding Bradstow School showed the real-world consequences – the potential closure of a unique and precious facility without debate.
The concern is not confined to Conservative councillors. The sole Independent councillor tweeted that the administration is acting as an “elected dictatorship.”[3] A veteran Labour councillor of over 50 years of service on the council wrote on his blog that council meetings are now a “formulaic, essentially pointless event. Over the years it has lost all its old spontaneity and drama and desperately needs a re-think as to both purpose and format.”[4]
Final Thought
The administration clearly believes there is political advantage to itself in silencing opposition voices. But the case of Bradstow School should illustrate why – if nothing else – the administration’s interests lie in allowing debate and contributions from all sides of the council chamber. Bradstow School has been operating since 1990, when Wandsworth Council was under Conservative control. It remained open throughout successive Conservative administrations and years of Labour complaints about “Tory austerity”. However, with Labour in control of the council and national Government, the school now faces closure. The Conservative group has drawn on its experience of financially-responsible administration and energetically pushed forward alternatives to save the school. There is still time for the administration to change course.
[1] https://www.gmb-southern.org.uk/wandsworth-council-take-control-bradstow-school
[2] https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/documents/s117859/Paper%20No.%2025-70%20Conservative%20Motion.pdf
[3] https://x.com/malcolmgrimston/status/1866959097159094670?s=46&t=HyUTqtnwpUGyigxJYodLZw
[4] https://tonybelton.blog/2024/11/01/councillor-tony-beltons-battersea-november-2024-newsletter-185/
In response to this statement, Labour Councillor for Shaftesbury & Queenstown and Cabinet Member for Housing, Aydin Dikerdem, has written to Chamber UK claiming:
“That’s not what happened at all. They turned up with this stunt pre-planned. They wanted to move this item to the top of the agenda, ahead of passing our housing revenue account budget and council budget which they know have to be taken first and what this meeting was for. When they lost the vote they stormed out.
They did not submit any written questions on the issue of Bradstow, either to the leader or Cabinet member, which could have given the opportunity to discuss it at the start of the meeting. It was a disingenuous move to get a social media clip.
In the end our Cabinet member for children’s services ended up having to discuss the issue following the first two agenda items to an empty room. It was disrespectful to the members of the public who had come to see us discuss a range of topics, and disingenuous to the parents of the affected school who don’t need political games being played. We have not said we are closing the school we are just doing a consultation given the schools financial challenges which is what normally happens when a school becomes unviable. We will always put the needs of children at the heart of what we do.”
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