Three Richmond schools 'fully open' in tomorrow's strike

Hampton Junior School, Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School and Windham Nursery School will all have classes as normal.

Fifteen others will be partially open but the rest will close their doors as teachers across the country walk out over a dispute with the Government over their pensions.

Richmond Council said today it did not believe the strike would affect its frontline services.

A spokeswoman said: “It is not possible at this point to report the actual numbers of council staff taking industrial action tomorrow.

“However, our initial reports indicate that there will only be low numbers. As a result, we are not expecting any front line services to be affected tomorrow and all will be operating.”

John Holroyd, secretary of the Richmond branch of Unison, said its members will be on the picket line outside the council’s headquarters in York Road, Twickenham.

David Carrier, chairman of Richmond College’s branch of the University and College Union (UCU), said staff would walk out tomorrow morning and will be demonstrating at each of the three gates.

He said: “We hope to draw attention to our case, which is that we are having our pensions taken away from us.

“Our pensions are not just pensions, they are effectively deferred income. We’ve paid all our life into a scheme which we negotiated in 2008 with the Government.

“This is our own self-regulated pension scheme. The effect is that the young people will no longer participate in the pension scheme and that might scupper it entirely.

“It might mean the public will have to pay more in benefits to older members of the public that have no pension scheme whatsoever. This is to pay the public sector deficit – it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul.

“I’ve paid £120 a month into my pension for years now. Why shouldn’t I get it back? I’ve paid my dues.”

For a full list of schools closing tomorrow, visit richmond.gov.uk/home/council_government_and_democracy/industrial_action.htm.