A WEST Devon teacher joined a delegation of TUC members at Westminster last week, when they lobbied MPs over 'creeping privatisation' of public services, particularly in education and health.
Barry Albrighton, who teaches peripatetic music lessons at primary schools in the area and at Tavistock College, attended the lobby as a representative of the National Union of Teachers.
He met West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett to highlight his concerns.
Mr Albrighton said: 'Private finance should never be a substitute for proper public investment — Railtrack is a good example of that.'
Mr Albrighton said private money was taking an increasingly large role in the provision of education in city areas, but all schools were beginning to look for other forms of funding.
Mr Albrighton said recent opinion polls show parents are 'far from happy' with the role of the private sector in public education, and that parents should have a local procedure through which they can question educational provision.
'Clearly, there is no short-term fix with this and the Government is not going to change its mind overnight, but the meeting was about putting pressure on for high quality public services,' said Mr
Albrighton.
'Education of children should not be for profit and the health of the nation is not about shareholders profits, that's the essence of it as far as I am concerned.'
Mr Burnett said the meeting was a successful one which aired important issues.
'It's always great to see people from the constituency in the House. I am extremely keen to promote the public services, schools, hospitals and housing particularly, and I have severe reservations about the Government's private finance initiatives.'
Mr Burnett said there was a danger that some PFI schemes produced 'extremely' high returns for developers at the tax payers' expense, representing very bad value for money in the long term.