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1. The Further Education Funding Council deliberately and vindictively closed BCC.

Those appointed to the Melia Committee which recommended the closure of BCC were:

Terry Melia (chair FE Development Agency and former chief inspector FEFC)

Anne Sofer (former chief educaion officer Tower Hamlets)

Rama Nand Lal (chair of governors Swindon College)

Joe Stanyer (DfEE official)

2. The local people and institutions consulted which were said either to approve the closure of BCC or 'did not disapprove' it were:

Black Country Colleges Strategic Partnership, the Black Country College Principals.
The Careers Service, local Headteachers, Local Community Associations, Bilston
Community College former staff and students, former finance director etc. Principal and
chair of governors Wulfrun College, W'ton Chamber Commerce T & E, local businesses
(about 60 of them), vice-chancellor University Wolverhampton, Representatives of
W'ton MBC including its leader, chief executive and chief education officer, W'ton
head teachers, Prospect Careers, Black Country College Consortium Principals' Group,
Chief Executive Association of Colleges, general secretary NATFE, three local MPs
(Dennis Turner, Ken Purchase and Jenny Jones).

Who else was responsible for closing BCC?

The FEFC had already determined that Bilston was second on the list of a number of 'failing' Colleges that had fraudulently misspent public money. But this was not enough, and it was determined to show that BCC was also grossly inefficient. So when all the management staff and one third total staff had been removed it sent in its own inspection team, who not surprisingly, found it 'the most inefficient College it had ever inspected.' Nowhere in this 105 paragraph report are the names of the Inspectors who carried it out named.

3. Who else closed BCC? NATFHE the lecturers' union helped close BCC.

Extract from letter Paul Mackney, Gen.Sec. NATFHE to George Barnsby 2l/7/99

Dear George,

There were many, many brilliant things at Bilston, but there were equally fatal
flaws. The latter have made it difficult to sustain the battle for the former.

4. Who else closed BCC? The Governors of Wulfrun College and Bilston Community College

issued a local Consultation in May 99 for A SINGLE COLLEGE FOR W'TON. This solution seemed the best way out to many people who would not have under any other circumstances have allowed BCC to be closed. Its rhetoric promised a fresh commitment to involve local communities, to embody equality of opportunity in every facet of college life, a town centre facility currently known as the Learning Hub. The governors would demonstrate openness and accountability and so the promises went on. The implication that the government would be prepared to put more money into this new college and thus provide more education in the town plus its avowal of all the virtues had a very powerful appeal to many people in Wolverhampton.

The reality? Wolverhampton College in 2001 is smaller than BCC alone. It cannot reach its targets of students, the governors are stuck with their false ideas that BCC had vast debts. Its service to the community is far less saisfactory than that of BCC, the staff is in open revolt, and the governors seem prepared to use any method to stifle criticism including threats and physical ejection of the 82 year old Spokesman of the Friends of BCC. Names of those said to have been consulted in the setting up of W'ton College were all those named in paragraph 1 above and also three more Chief Executives of Black Country Boroughs, six more Directors of Education, nine more FE Colleges in the W.Mids, five more Chambers of Commerce, four Black Country Health Authorities, two more MPs (Sir Patrick Cormack and Ian Pearson), one MEP (Simon Murphy), W.Mids Emergency Services (Police, Fire and Ambulance), another sheaf of employers, general secretaries of the TUC, NUT, NASUWT, President NUS, Voluntary Sector organisations, Newhampton Centre Tenants and Regional Agents.

5. Who else helped to close BCC? We are now getting to the Hands on People.

The Melia Report of March 1999 proposed the closure of BCC and discussed two options (page 26).

(a) The closure of BCC and transfer of its assets to Wulfrun College

(b) A joint dissolution of and merger of BCC and Wulfrun College

'The main disadvantage of (a) 'is that it would not have widespread support amongst some key local opinion formers, especially those located in Bilston.' So option (b) was chosen. This involved the dissolution of the existing corporations of Wulfrun and BCC and the formation of a single college. If this had been done there would have been space for the discussion of the running down of and perhaps some continuation of Community Education in Wolverhampton, thus minimising debts as arrangements from existing partnership arrangements were honoured.

But the FEFC reneged on its own solution and when Wulfrun College decided it would not dissolve itself it was allowed to take over Bilston and thus implement Option (a) which had been specifically rejected. At this point the Friends of BCC claimed that this taking over of Bilston with its 30% ethnic minority staff by a college with only 9% was Institutionally Racist and referred he matter to the Commission for Racial Equality.

We further challenged the FEFC on the propriety of an altered solution which had not been discussed by anyone. The following is the relevant part of the reply we received:

'The Melia Report supported the double dissolution rather than the single dissolution. However, the public consultation supported the single dissolution model and did not support the statement in paragraph 87 of the Melia Report that the single dissolution would not have wide support among key local opinion formers. The key parts of the process were the decision to dissolve the Bilston corporation taken by that corporation, the proposals made to the Council (FEFC) by Bilston and Wulfrun colleges' corporations and the deliberations of its Reorganisations and Regional Committees and the decision of the Secretary of State.'

Friends ask: What public consultation took place when Option (b) was abandoned and Option (a) implemented? and, Does it not seem that a subservient Bilston corporation was formed which had only one function i.e. to dissolve itself?

The members of the Wulfrun Board of Governors,The Transitional Board of Governors of Bilston Community College, and the Governors of Wolverhampton College, together with officials from the FEFC were clearly the direct agents of of the closure of BCC. Their names will be available either from Wolverhampton College or the successors of the FEFC.

6. Who else closed Bilston Community College? Baroness Blackstone and David Blunkett

The bitter hostility that Tessa Blackstone held towards BCC can be traced through the humiliating grilling that she and the chief of the FEFC received at the hands of the Committee of Public Accounts of the House of Commons at the INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGED IRREGULARITIES AT HALTON COLLEGE published in July 1999. Halton was the most phenomenally successful College of the Thatcher Project designed to turn colleges into business corporations, to insist that they compete and the good Colleges drive out the bad, and find outside sources of finance with ultimate independence from any public funds. When this project collapsed Blackstone and the FEFC conceived the idea that Halton had been using funds fraudulently; although why it should have do so when it had a virtual licence to print money legally with its outside franchises was not explained. By analogy of similar growth patterns etc. 20 'failing' colleges were identified the second worst of which was Bilston and Blackstone avowed immediate and ruthless action. Unfortunately for her she has been unable to do either, and Paul Goddard-Patel and others have exposed the myth of the 'failing' colleges and revealed the scandal of the £65 million bill to close BCC. Unfortunately the FEFC in looking for similarities failed to see two vital differences, i.e. BCC was unique in that it was a community college serving and satisfying a large ethnic minority and it was institutionally racist to close it. Secondly Halton College had a pot of gold from which it eventually paid an imposed £14m 'debt' from its own profits! So no fraud had taken place! BCC on the contrary was suffering from strangulation arising from chronic underfunding over many years. As for the Minister of Education, we all grieve that David Blunkett should have kept Woodhouse to scourge our teachers. He, the disabled man, we all willed to succeed, but his response has been:

Extract of letter to G.Barnsby from Anita McLoughlin FE Org. & Governance DfEE 23.8.00

Ministers are satisfied that the dissolution of the former Bilston Community College and its successful merger with Wulfrun College to form the new Wolverhampton College has been fully justified. The matter is not open for consideration.

7. Who else closed Bilston Community College? The local press The Express & Star

This monopoly local paper maintained for many months the unchallenged view that BCC had large debts and was ineffcient. Its sister paper Wolverhampton Chronicle followed the same line.

8. Who else helped to close Bilston Community College? The national press.

The institutionally racist view that BCC is a failed and debt ridden college has been spread throughout the world. The rebuttal by the Friends must therefore also be spread worldwide.

9.Who has influenced the Labour movement not to protest at he closure of BCC?

PRIVATE EYE

Paul Foote wrote a number of scathing articles for Private Eye supporting the Further Edcation Funding Council's line that it had a string of 'failing' Colleges which it was its duty to bring to book for their fraudulent use of public funds. These articles were extraordinarily influential in the labour movement in Britain, and even abroad .

We have contacted Ian Hislop and Paul Foote asking for their apologies and their return to the ranks of the righteous.

THE SO-CALLED FAILED COLLEGES

The so-called 'failed' Colleges and the reasons for their failure were as follows:
Source: House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts July 1999: Investigation of Alleged Irregularities at Halton College (page xviii Figure 3.)

Colleges with similair growth rates as Halton	Colleges where Principals had reclassified work from Franchised to Direct Provision
Halton	Halton
Barking	Barnsley
Barnsley	Clarendon
Bilston CC	Handsworth
Bishop Auckland	Mid-Kent
Clarendon, Notts.	Stafford
Dudley
Handsworth
Josiah Mason 6th Form Coll.
Mid-Kent
South Nottingham
Stafford
Waltham Forest
W.Kent

Total: 20 Failing Colleges
Those considered most at risk of overclaims 7 (Halton, Barnsley, Bilston CC, Clarendon, Handsworth, Mid-Kent, Stafford).

It is the intention of the Friends to communicate with all institutions and persons mentioned above to express an opinion as to whether they supported the closure of Bilston CC at the time and whether in the light of further information they would do so again. Also to ask whether they would support an independent equiry into the closure of BCC.

The aims of the Friends will also be amended to read:

The Friends consist of people who have been victimised from the College, those who face victimisation at the new Wolverhampton College and others interested in community education. It will support its members and others seeking both professional and financial compensation for those unjustly accused of inefficiency and fraudulent actions. It will also seek official representation on the new Learning and Skills Council for the Black Country region to ensure Institutional Racism is fought against and eventually eliminated. The FRIENDS will also initiate studies into the relevant management and curricular activities of Community Colleges throughout the world.

Friends of Bilston Community College

March 2001

Since this Document was issued to a restricted number of Friends as a draft a number of things have occurred.

1. It is established that the debts of both Bilston & Wulfrun Colleges are £5.7m, an amount which so large and flourishing a College as BCC could comfortably held as a debt if it had not been closed. (See Wolverhampton College Members' Report and Financial Statements for the year ending 31 July 2000 page 30)

2. The Spokeperson for the Friends was informed by the West Midlands Fraud Squad that 'The West Midlands Fraud Squad have now completed their investigation into the allegations of impropriety at Bilston Community College. No evidence has been found to suggest any of the activities at the College were of a criminal nature. We have therefore filed our papers.' (Letter of 15 August 2001)

3. Misunderstanding regarding Paul Foot and the role of PRIVATE EYE in the losing of BCC. Some progressive people in Wolverhampton took it that Paul Foot's excoriation of Colleges and Principals who were making private fortunes at running Tory-type Colleges included Bilston College, whereas Professor Eric Robinson, who had taught at Bilston, was specifically warning him to lay off Bilston as there was an important racial element in this case and Paul Foot never wrote about Bilston. Paul was most annoyed with me (Spokesman of Friends) as he had every right to be and we hope our grovelling apology to him has been some consolation.

27 September 2001