Harlow's Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman Lorna Spenceley attended a consultation meeting at Passmores School. The meeting was called to discuss proposals to close the school on the present site and move it to Brays Grove, which Essex County Council has decided to close.

Lorna asked Essex's cabinet member for education, Cllr Stephen Castle, what the county council intended to sell the Passmores school site for; and asked him to clarify previous assurances to Passmores parents that their children would have priority access to a new school on the Brays Grove site. She said:

"From the outset of this whole process it has been clear that county councillors' real target has been not the closure of Brays Grove, but the closure of Passmores - a prime piece of real estate in the centre of Harlow.

If Mr Castle repeats the assurance given to Passmores parents that they will have priority access to places on the Brays Grove site if the school moves, he will need to justify that decision to parents on the doorstep of the present Brays Grove. If he denies it, he will need to explain to parents at Passmores why they have been so seriously misled."