Birmingham Education Committee: … … The Holt Street Controversy: The pith of the afternoon’s business seemed to be contained in a recommendation of the sites and Buildings Sub-committee relating to the much-discussed Holt Street School. The Sub-Committee desired the Committee to rescind a minute authorising the preparation of the plans and estimates, and to rent a site at the junction of Legge Street, and extended portion of Corporation Street, for the proposed school for crippled children. … question belongs to the Estates Committee of the City Council. The Chairman moved the adoption of the recommendation on behalf of Mr. Bethune-Baker, chairman of the Sub-Committee, who was unavoidably absent. Mrs. Pinsent, taking up the cudgels on behalf of the Special Schools Committee, over which she presides, began with a caustic reference to “a great many things in the daily papers,” which she declared to have been “more picturesque than accurate.” The Sub-Committee, in its original inquiry had found that nearly all the defective children for whom accommodation was required lived within a mile or a mile and a quarter of the Holt Street site. It was imperative that children of this type should be provided with a school in the immediate neighbourhood of their homes, however beneficial the air of Harborne might be to their health. A large section of the public seemed to think that the Committee proposed to build a boarding school in Holt Street (a laugh). The idea was so extremely absurd that she wondered how it could have been entertained by persons who were not them-selves mentally deficient. The Sub-committee, Mrs. Pinsent urged, acted on a sound principle in selecting a site which was already in the possession of the Education Authority … (continues) … …
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949