Education on the menu at Geraint's visit to University Mosque

Geraint Davies was invited to lead discussion at the University Mosque and to share a meal on Saturday.

“It was good to visit the Mosque and to exchange views on local and wider issues. The Muslim community is very much part of Swansea’s future and I enjoyed good company and good food! ” said Geraint  Davies Labour Parliamentary Candidate pictured with Mosque Treasurer Mahaboob Basha who is also the Students' Union Race Relations Officer.  

Discussions focused on concerns within the Muslim community about the impact of cuts in Council services, in particular education, on the future for Swansea families.

Geraint said " Swansea was already spending £300 less per pupil compared with Neath Port Talbot or Carmarthenshire. Our neighbours are giving new Welsh Assembly money to their schools but in Swansea school budgets are being cut even further.

"That's why headteachers across the city have written to parents objecting to the £5million cut in education leading to 100 fewer teachers, larger class sizes, less subject choice & poorer education.

 “As we move into recovery Swansea's children need us to invest in their qualifications and skills for tomorrow's jobs. Instead our children are being let down by a Lib Dem Council widening the gulf in spending compared with nearby authorities" says Labour’s Geraint Davies.

"Cuts £17m & 600 jobs is only this year's price to bail out the Liberal Democrat Council's failure in social services, it's multi-million pound losses on new computer systems, overspending on the Leisure Centre and uncollected taxes. Money is being switched from education to social services in an effort to prop up a failing service that had been the best in Wales when Labour ran the Council.”

"By cutting support for children in schools this will simply store up more problems for social services in future” said one headteacher.

Meanwhile, services and jobs are being cut across the board and 1000 street lamps will go out. The average council tax is being hiked up by twice the rate of inflation to a massive £958 for a band D property.               

Geraint Davies, who once was Leader of London's largest local authority Croydon with a £0.5billion budget serving a third of a million people, said

"We need to increase the share of money spent on education in Swansea, use money more effectively and spend more money on education across Wales.

"The wrong local choices have been made. People don't want to spend money bailing out the bendy bus and leisure centre losses when the money is urgently needed for schools."