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I
am very proud of Anita Bromley. She should be made an MBE and become a demi-celeb appearing on day time television and coining
it in for personal appearances. Who is she? She’s a 41 year old single mother, who works as an accounts clerk in East
Sussex. And why is she so very special? Because she took on the rip-off trade in school uniforms.
Unlike us older mums who
already have kids at secondary school, she didn’t realise there was a scam where you get conned into buying expensive
school uniforms, which you can only buy from one designated shop. That not only do you get ripped off with inflated prices,
bit they make you buy stuff which is too big and they’re rude to boot. She couldn’t believe there was no choice
for her only child 11 year-old Faith, and she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t buy cheaper at high street
stores instead. But unlike the rest of us, she decided to fight against it.
Anita sacrificed her summer to engage in battle.
The uniform for Bexhill High School in East Sussex was available only from the school's designated shop. They were asking
£17 for a regulation sweatshirt carrying its logo, but Anita thought it was a ridiculously inflated price. She found
a local supplier that was prepared to make and sell the same item for £12.50, but the school would not give it permission
to reproduce the logo.
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Undeterred Anita arranged a series of meetings with the school's
management, pointing out that she thought they were profiteering, and that anyhow the practice is outlawed by the Office of
Fair Trading, who have been trying to stamp it out for two years threatening prosecutions, with Ministers ordering schools
to abide by the regulator's ruling. Citizens Advice is campaigning for the courts to be used to enforce the guidelines
too. The Schools Admission Code, issued in February, says if schools buy uniforms in bulk, they must pass on these savings
to parents. But Anita thought that Bexhill High wasn’t doing that and they were using the profit
to swell their own coffers - in effect subsiding the education budget. They told her that the money raised
by charging extra for uniforms at its shop went towards providing equipment for the children. “But why should we be
effectively taxed to make a donation to the school?” she asked.
Although around half of the country’s 24,000 schools insist that parents
buy uniforms from a named specialist supplier, where they get a kick back, Bexhill High have agreed that prices should be
cut at the school shop, and that the uniform can be bought at other town centre retailers. Hurrah, what a woman. I just hope
the other 12,000 schools can be shamed into stopping this appalling, immoral practice. In fact scrub the idea of the MBE,
I think Anita Bromley, with her tenacity and sense of fairplay, she should be appointed head of one
of those banks the government have bailed out.
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