EXCLUSIVE by TOM JACKSON THREE governors of the Thomas Clarkson Community College claim they are being kept in the dark over vital issues. They say information, including how much money is available to spend at the newly-constituted Wisbech school and the

EXCLUSIVE by TOM JACKSON

THREE governors of the Thomas Clarkson Community College claim they are being kept in the dark over vital issues.

They say information, including how much money is available to spend at the newly-constituted Wisbech school and the numbers of staff the school will have, is not being shared.

Councillor David Oliver, mayor of Wisbech, and fellow governors Martin Williams and Julie Massen claim history is repeating itself - the same thing happened when they were Queen's School governors.

The Thomas Clarkson College will officially come into being in September, using the site and buildings of the Queen's School which has been placed in special measures because of poor performance.

The three governors say they were not given the chance to vote on some changes to the school uniform and they did not know about last month's Ofsted report until they read about it in the Wisbech Standard.

Cllr Oliver said: "As far as we can see these things were happening last time and it's happening again.

"We are not here to cause trouble, but we need to highlight that there is a problem."

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesman said: "The uniform was discussed and agreed at a meeting on June 14 at which David Oliver and Julie Massen were present, and the budget was debated at the finance committee on June 8, at which Martin Williams and David Oliver were present.

"Furthermore, the shadow governing body is invited to attend all interim executive body meetings, so there is no reason why governors on both should not be able to keep themselves fully abreast of measures to take the school forward."

But Cllr Oliver countered: "The uniform was discussed and governors voted on whether the school should use polo shirts or sweatshirts. The colour and any logo, we were told, would be discussed at another meeting.

"And, with the budget, there was a vote which saw two vote for and two against, so it was not agreed although the minutes said they were.

"We never had the figures in front of us, and nobody in their right mind would vote in favour of something they have not seen.