TWO news items regarding young people and schools have captured my attention, but for widely different reasons

The first, which if it turns out to be true, is one in which I rejoice. £1billion, over the next decade, is to be invested in desperately needed upgrading of the school infrastructure in England. Hopefully this will include the 700 plus projects that were scrapped as part of the austerity package of 2010, but not be restricted to those.

However the second item drove me almost to tears; namely the free school meals voucher scheme due to operate during the school holidays.

These £15 per week vouchers were intended to help feed children from low income families during the summer.

Sadly, the firm operating the scheme are hardly world beating. The company that has been awarded £234 m project by the Department for Education has produced a system in which many are finding great difficulty in accessing the promised help, to the degree that some schools are paying cash directly to parents as there are no local shops involved in the scheme.

The company does operate a helpline for parents who are struggling with the system - at a premium rate of £21 per hour. One can only wonder at the mind that thinks the parent of a child who is offered a voucher worth £15 can readily afford a telephone call that, with the passing from pillar to post which often is the case in such calls, may well cost more than the voucher.

I suspect that the local authority could have done a far better job at a fraction of the cost.

Is this really the best that can be offered after the public demand to restore the scheme which was initially going to be scrapped?

Councillor Alan Hickman

Labour, Skipton West Ward

Skipton