Councillor Watkins removed as school governor

Date published: 11 March 2008

Rochdale’s Lib Dem Councillor Elwyn Watkins has been accused of letting his community down after it has emerged that he is to be removed as a governor for Brownhill School for non attendance of meetings.

The decision will be ratified at tomorrow’s Township meeting following Councillor Watkins’ failure to attend the last three meetings of the governing body at the specialist school, which caters for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties who have found it difficult to achieve their full potential in the mainstream sector.

It is likely to cause further embarrassment to Rochdale Liberal Democrats, coming only a few days after the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, visited Oldham to back Councillor Watkins, who is also the Lib Dems Parliamentary Candidate in Oldham East and Saddleworth.

Surinder Biant, a former councillor and currently a governor at Brownhill School said that the school was going through a lot of organisational changes and that it was important they had the support of governors. "In a time of change I had rather hoped that Councillor Watkins would have demonstrated better leadership than this," he said. "The school really needs the support of its governors and his response has been disappointing."