Helen with Michael Gove at Maple Infants' School in Surbiton

Michael Gove recently visited Surbiton with Helen Whately to discuss the problems of a lack of school spaces. Michael Gove said; "A Conservative Government will make sure that there is funding for school expansion and new schools to meet the growing demand for school places in areas like Kingston. I saw how successfully schools are coping with teaching extra classes in temporary facilities, but this isn't a long term solution: we will make sure there is enough funding for permanent expansion of places to meet demand."

Mr Gove also spoke of Conservative plans to change planning regulations to make it easier to find new school sites, as well as enabling parents (and others) to open new schools to give parents more choice and address problems like the shortage of school places; "In many areas of the country such as Surbiton there is demand and need for new schools. That's why, if we form the next Government, we'll change planning regulations to make it easier for the Council, groups of parents and other organisations such as charities to find sites and set up schools. By creating a new generation of independent state schools we will give parents what they want: small class sizes where teachers know the children's names combined with discipline and good behaviour."

Helen Whately said "This was an exceptional visit from the man making Conservative education policy. Michael Gove was clearly listening to local teachers and parents and keen to understand fully our local issues. His plans to enable new schools and school expansion, and not least to make it easier to get sites for new schools, are exactly what we need here. Not only could it mean enough school places, but also real choice for parents."

Speaking after the visit, Helen said:

"Thank you to those of you who joined Michael Gove's visit to Surbiton. We had a very interesting discussion and he really appreciated hearing directly from local parents and teachers.

The most important outcome for us locally was Michael Gove committing that a future Conservative Government would provide funding for the extra primary school places we need, putting an end to the problems we've had over the last few years. Of course, while Michael can commit government funding (if we win), it's up to the Council to actually deliver
the infrastructure of new / enlarged schools.