Barry Sheerman MP

We have also been focusing on another town centre issue and that’s the attempt to move Harold Wilson’s statute to what I thought was a rather inauspicious place. I am totally in favour of the re-development of St. George’s square, bringing it back to life. It is one of the greatest Victorian town square’s in the country. But we must be sensitive to any change we bring about to the centre of our town. I quite like the idea of predestining, I sort of like the idea to have fountains that jump out of the earth, similar to those we see elsewhere. But we also have to remember that Harold’s statute was chosen to be there by a very famous sculptor, Ian Walters, who also sculpted the new Nelson Mandela statute here in Parliament Square.

He and Lady Wilson chose that spot because you saw Harold striding out from the station. And when large numbers of people come out of the station in the morning or on a big match day it looks as if Harold is walking along with the crowd. To move it to one side, on a kind of island that was circled by the taxi cabs and buses, seemed very inappropriate. The suggestions Mary Wilson has made and the Prime Minister, who also sent me a personal letter on this, has led to a compromise which is a good one. Moving it slightly back but in the same prominent position will work well. 

One of the things we have been very much involved in the constituency has been really trying to evaluate the needs of Huddersfield town centre and the future of retailing. My interest in this goes back a long way. Back in 2000 we developed a plan were we found, along with consultants and many other people, that what Huddersfield must be about is quality. What I have always believed is that we don’t want to be competing with the average and the ordinary. We have to make Huddersfield first class, absolutely extraordinary – to have the wow factor. I believe that when we opened the new centre, the Kings Gate centre, I believe that was a break through in terms of quality. I still think of all the schemes now planned for Huddersfield that the emphasis must be on sheer quality and I would like to see a whole range of high quality people and services. Waitrose possibly coming to Huddersfield, Betty’s Tea Rooms opening an outlet; going for something that makes Huddersfield different. I have always wanted Marks and Spencer’s to punch above their weight with a decent more modern shop than the one we have at the moment. So I have been keeping my eye on that, discussing it with the local authority and with the people involved in a number of bids to develop Huddersfield. This is part of my job, putting them on the spot – trying to make sure they are properly accountable. I am following a new development on the other side of the ring road by Tesco and the expansion of town centre retailing. Whether it is Queensgate on Kingsgate they must be based on proper thought and consultation. And again the quality watch word. 

Surprise, surprise a week later I totally didn’t anticipate having another question at PMQs. Then as I sat down and picked up the order of business I suddenly see I am number 13 and then I relaxed as number 13 is never reached in PMQs, but then of course, as time went by, number 13 began to become a possibility. In the last seconds I got my chance to ask my question. I came back to a campaign, which like all good campaign’s starts locally. I am really worried locally that while we have pretty good facilities and much improved facilities - like the new special school in Huddersfield - not enough is being done for young people with special educational needs. There have been some really good things in special educational needs up until the age of 16. But post 16 there is much less provision, I am really worried some of the facilities provided by the mental health trust and the vocational enterprise centre are due to close. Some young people with strong educational needs have been prevented from continuing with courses at Huddersfield Technical College. And I do not see Kirkless Social Services picking up where there is need. We need positive things for people up until 18 who suffer from mentally illness or other types of disabilities. I just don’t think it is joined up enough and there is enough provision. This would be prove beneficial for the young person themselves and for their families and carers. So I asked the Prime Minister would he re-double his efforts and will he bring those different departments together to make sure we have a joined up set of proposals, and I got a good response from the PM on that too.
It’s been a busy two weeks, in-between all this there are the other high profile things. My new committee, I chair the Children, Schools and Families Committee which replaces Education and Skills. We have had seminars to decide what we are going to look at first, and we have taken our first evidence session and interviewed the OFSTED inspector. So a very interesting and challenging path ahead.      

It is not often you get called up for Prime Minister Questions (PMQs) twice in such a short period of time. PMQs is always done by ballot, you put your name in and if you are lucky you come out top - if not you disappear without trace. Two weeks ago I came number two in the ballot, so it is absolutely certain that I am going to be called. And I asked the Prime Minister, I pushed him very hard, to confront the critiques of what I think is a fantastic idea - raising the age at which young people leave education and training to the age of eighteen. This is different from the school leaving age; this is not about keeping youngsters in school until the age of eighteen. This is making sure if they go into a job that it includes training, an apprenticeship or even if they go into community or voluntary work that it involves some training. So lots of options, and of course if they want we can encourage them to stay on in school or college. Children are children until eighteen in our country and if every child does matter then the real outcomes for children should be positive ones. We should keep young people in some form of education and training as long as possible. All the reports now show there are a shrinking number of unskilled jobs. There are very few jobs for unskilled workers in our country. There are up to 2.3 million now there will be only 600, 000 by 2020 we have to act fast. So we need to get on with it, we need to make sure everyone in our country uses all the skills and potential they have. So I pointed that out to the Prime Minister and asked him to confront the opposition. Some of them, David Cameron in particular, have tried to dismiss these proposals as a stunt and have attempted to argue that it was keeping young people trapped in school until eighteen. In reality it is none of those things. We have to say it loud and clear that this is one of the best things to happen in education and training in my lifetime.