Schools campaign plans day of action for Saturday 20th March

11.35.55am GMT Thu 18th Feb 2010

Lucy Hurds is backed by Paul Keetch MP in her campaign for better school funding.

In the coming weeks, 'Hands up for Herefordshire' will continue to rally support for our schools, and to this end I am asking all Herefordshire schools to join our campaign, collect signatures to our petition, and take part in 'Hands Up For Herefordshire' Day on Saturday 20th of March.

Mass displays on March 20th, consisting of pupils' hand prints from across the county collected together, will aim to demonstrate how many people care about this issue. This will show the huge number of children who would benefit from fairer funding and will give a highly visible display of our intent. These will then be collected from the schools by members of Herefordshire Voluntary Association, brought together and then displayed at sites arranged with Herefordshire Council in Hereford, Ledbury, Leominster, Bromyard, Kington and Ross-on-Wye. In order to display the hands to maximum effect, campaign organiser Lucy Hurds is seeking the donation of stakes or canes, on which we will mount the hands.

Lucy said, "We have local papers and radio stations set up to cover the event, aiming to get as much coverage as possible. If you would be able to help, then we would be extremely grateful and make it known in our publicity material and press releases that your business has helped to support this important fight for our schools."

"Herefordshire representatives have already met with Minister for Schools, Vernon Coaker MP. With the Minister's admission that he has recognised the need for extra funding in rural education comes the best opportunity for us to achieve this goal. This meeting was not the end, but the start of our campaign. It is now up to us as a county to show that we will continue to push this issue until action is taken to address funding levels."

"I would welcome your support and the chance to talk to you further about our plans so please give me a call on 07827 011611 or email me at lhurds@aol.com."