AS a retired member of the former Bolton Community Education Service, I have no particular axe to grind.
But I was saddened and angered to read of the community centre closures (Bolton Evening News, June 4), a consequence of the amalgamation of Community Education Service and Bolton College, Community Education Service was a flourishing organisation built up over the decades, meeting the needs of students drawn largely from a different sector of the community from those using Bolton College.
It had received a very good OFSTED report after its inspection in the year 97/98. On the other hand Bolton College was in financial trouble with falling numbers, so it is not difficult to deduce that Community Education Service was the "sacrificial lamb" to keep the Manchester Road college afloat. However, despite a hierarchy of highly salaried staff it would appear that it is still not on a sound financial footing.
Community Education Service centres provided courses across Bolton, and with the best will in the world the Manchester Road Campus is not, and will never be, suitable replacement. Excellent courses are available at this site, but it is a venue suited to the younger end. Mature students and those from the ethnic community, to name but two, would feel happier with more immediate community-based learning.
In fact, in the case of Sharples High School -- now a community centre designated for closure -- their successful bid for a new ICT block was partly based on it being accessible to the wider adult community. What is happening is tantamount to asset-stripping.
In my opinion, it is the beginning of the end for community education as we have known it. Bolton is committed to LIFELONG LEARNING, and whoever is responsible for the provision of community education has a moral duty provide courses suited to the users, not simply as a means to their own end.
The public are being short-changed with the current policy, and former Community Education Service staff are thoroughly demoralised, seeing the destruction of this organisation as an act of betrayal.
Mrs Amie E Palmer
Birtenshaw Crescent
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