Coleg Gwent Cuts: "Devastating" | Plaid-Labour Government Described as "sheer hypocrites"

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 2nd Apr 2009

Teachers, courses and colleges axed due to Labour-Plaid Assembly Government education budget cuts

A swathe of cuts in further education in Gwent has been described as a "disaster" with a large cut in courses available and A Level courses being withdrawn from Pontypool to Cross Keys, leaving students in North Torfaen with long journeys to face.

Local Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Michael German, said that the cuts were a direct result of cuts from the Labour-Plaid Government in Cardiff Bay, describing the two parties as "sheer hypocrites."

Mr. German said, "Just yesterday we witnessed Plaid and Labour Assembly members speaking against cuts in further education, after they had voted for the very same cuts. Labour and Plaid cannot hide away from their actions and then try to cover up with sympathetic words on the steps of the Assembly Building."

Clearly angered, Mr. German added: "The Labour-Plaid Government is directly responsible for the Coleg Gwent cuts: teaching posts are going, sites in Pontypool and Abergavenny being closed, courses axed and young students facing upheaval just when they need to concentrate on studies. Where do Labour and Plaid suppose they can claim that they are committed to investment in education now?

"The whole sorry situation is a disaster for further education in Gwent: for students told their college closes and being abandoned; for teaching staff told they will soon join the ranks of the unemployed and young people being told that courses they hoped to take now no longer exist."

"I totally back the Comments by Coleg Gwent principal, Howard Burton: the cuts made by the Labour-Plaid Assembly Government are nothing short of devastating."

Mr. German has been visiting local school recently and said that he feared more bad news to come. Secondary schools are telling me that they face making cuts in staff and A Level courses because of the huge cuts in money form the Labour-Plaid Assembly Government."