Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab)

- Hansard -

I have the honour to present, on behalf of the Slough Sikh Education Trust and members of the Sikh community in Slough and south Buckinghamshire, a petition in support of Khalsa secondary school in Slough. This afternoon, together with officers of the trust, I presented a petition in similar terms, with 1,500 signatures, to the office of the Prime Minister. I am trying to speak slowly so that the Secretary of State for Education will hear me, because the promoters of the petition tell me that he gave a pledge that he would help them to ensure the building of the school, if it was the only site they could find. That is indeed the case, and that is what the petition deals with.

The petition states:

The Humble Petition of the Slough Sikh Education Trust and members of the Sikh community within Slough and South Buckinghamshire.

Sheweth that the application of the Slough Sikh Education Trust to build and open a new Sikh Secondary Faith School, Khalsa Academy, in September 2012, was submitted in June 2011; that the Academy is to be sited next to the existing successful Sikh primary school; and that the trustees have, over the past year, exhausted all other feasible site options in the Slough area.

I must say that I know that, because I have been helping them. The petition continues:

Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House urges the Government to approve the application of the Slough Sikh Education Trust to build and open the Khalsa Academy in September 2012; and to support their endeavours to build the school on land near the existing Sikh Primary School.

And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray &c.

[P000933]