Outstanding FOI requests

Just an update about where we are on the FOI requests.

The first for the postcodes may have to go into appeals next week. I hope my little Word macro will make them think again.

There is another one, which is for the actual designs for Orleans and St Stephen's. I'd like to be able to post them so everyone can see what is proposed.

"We will listen", say the Council

unless your name is Nigel Cannings... It's nice to know that Cllr Eady knows who I am, even if I don't know who he is!

http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/4506748.Council___We_will_listen_to_ideas_on_primary_school_places_/

VBA macro to extract postcodes

What on earth is a bit of programming language doing in a blog about schools?

Simple. I want the Council to send me the postcode data for school entries over the last few years. They (finally) agree that the data does have to be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, but it's too big a task to take the list their system generates, which is addresses and postcodes, and extract the postcodes.

So here is a macro that can be used in Word (any version), to delete everything but the postcodes.

Let me know if it works for you!

Sub Macro1()
'
' Find postcodes, and leave them alone!
'
'

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "<[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9]{1,2}[ ]{1,2}[0-9]{1}[A-Z]{2}>"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
Do While Selection.Find.Found
' For Word2003 and below, uncomment below, and comment the following
' NormalTemplate.BuildingBlockEntries.AppendToSpike Range:=Selection.Range
NormalTemplate.AutoTextEntries.AppendToSpike Range:=Selection.Range
Selection.Find.Execute
Loop
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "<[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9]{1}[A-Z]{1}[ ]{1,2}[0-9]{1}[A-Z]{2}>"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
Do While Selection.Find.Found
' For Word2003 and below, uncomment below, and comment the following
' NormalTemplate.BuildingBlockEntries.AppendToSpike Range:=Selection.Range
NormalTemplate.AutoTextEntries.AppendToSpike Range:=Selection.Range
Selection.Find.Execute
Loop
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "<[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9]{2,3}[A-Z]{2}>"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
Do While Selection.Find.Found
' For Word2003 and below, uncomment below, and comment the following
' NormalTemplate.BuildingBlockEntries.AppendToSpike Range:=Selection.Range
NormalTemplate.AutoTextEntries.AppendToSpike Range:=Selection.Range
Selection.Find.Execute
Loop
Selection.WholeStory
With NormalTemplate.BuildingBlockEntries("Spike")
.Insert Where:=Selection.Range, RichText:=True
.Delete
End With
'PL1A2NH
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "<[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9][A-Z][0-9][A-Z]{2}>"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
Do While Selection.Find.Found
' For Word2003 and below, uncomment below, and comment the following
' NormalTemplate.BuildingBlockEntries.AppendToSpike Range:=Selection.Range
NormalTemplate.AutoTextEntries.AppendToSpike Range:=Selection.Range
Selection.Find.Execute
Loop


End Sub



Two Good Schools for St Margarets

We are where we are.

The Council has managed to push through a two school solution to St Margarets' places squeeze without parents noticing. They say they will listen to alternatives but then reject them without discussion.

Yes, it may divide the community, but we need those extra school places, so let's be constructive about how we get them.

Orleans Infants may just have enough money to expand as it needs. It is a bright and attractive site, and expansion, while inconvenient, will create a modern school capable of meeting the needs of its target area.

St Stephen's is an urban school in a suburban location. It is cramped where it is, and adding two classrooms, especially with the need to create Reception spaces, is going to be challenging, not least because the fabric is already under strain, with evidence of damp around the school.

The education is great, but with a bright modern school on its doorstep, will it just become the poor second relation, the Cinderella school?

At present, the answer is yes. Because as a Church school, it cannot reclaim the VAT it pays, the already small 2 million pound budget shrinks, after consultant and architects fees, to 1.2 million pounds for the build. Independent local architects say the job cannot be done for that, and sources close to the project say that for the School to even start to come up to scratch, 1 million pounds needs to be found.

We want to get the Council to recalculate the budget, and fund accordingly. Cllr Eady says that the Council don't know everything. Our job is to show them how right we are.

A rough calculation shows that top-slicing 3-3.5% from the other school's budgets should cover the shortfall. That's a small fraction to make a large difference. Would a school being given 8 million have noticed only being offered 7.7 million? Probably not.

We will be keeping you up-to-date with progress, and publishing info as it comes in. We will also ask you to help us lobby the Council, elected and unelected, to help us help the school.

A million quid is too much to raise through cake sales...