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Schools Funding (Cornwall)

Lady Winterton, I apologise for not being here at the start of the debate. I was elsewhere attending a meeting on water charges and was somewhat caught out. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for securing the debate and for all his work over many years, particularly on small schools. On his point about services in the community depending on village schools, from my experience of talking to small shopkeepers, parents going back and forth during the day pop into the shop and use it. The journeys to and from school have a knock-on effect on the wider economy: other services depend on that footfall in the centre of the village that the village school provides.