Lobby your Councillors

How to find your local Councillors:

You can find out who your local Councillor is using the Council's website here:
http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/Pages/Services/councillors-general-information.aspx#FindingyourlocalCouncillor

Model Letter (Please feel free to adapt)

Dear

I am writing to you as a constituent of your ward in Waltham Forest to ask you to support our campaign against plans to set up a Free School in Walthamstow. I am a signatory of a petition that has gathered more than 200 signatures from local residents in just under four weeks and it continues to grow.

The petition raises concerns that a Free School will increase damaging competition between schools in our community, sucking resources away from local authority schools. It also expresses concern that this school will be unaccountable to the community as a whole, increase selection and will represent a decisive move toward privatising our school system. Many people are also concerned that the school’s sponsor is an evangelical religious charity called Oasis Community Learning.

The petition calls on the Council to campaign for to put pressure on the Department for Education to allow the Local Authority to expand our existing schools, replicating the amazing achievements of London Councils this year in expanding primary provision to meet the growing demand.

We believe that this would address any immediate problems with school places, while preserving the flexibility which would be lost with the introduction of an aggressively competitive and divisive Free School into our community.

I would be grateful if you would raise this issue with the Local Council. I would also be grateful if you could send a statement of support for this campaign.

You can find out more about the campaign and the petition here:
http://defendwalthamforeststateschools.blogspot.co.uk/

Yours sincerely,