Highland Council should have shown 'solidarity' and not 'shred' funding for 10 schools
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Highland Council should have shown “solidarity” with beleaguered communities across the north not agreed to “shred” the funding for 10 schools according to Liberal Democrat group leader Alasdair Christie.
Shockwaves are still making their way through school communities after Highland Council declared it would be unable to finance 10 school projects and slashed more than £120 million from its capital budget for them.
But the move did not go unchallenged by the opposition which backed an amendment tabled by Councillor Alasdair Christie which even provoked a small rebellion in the ranks of the administration.
The normally fluent Liberal Democrat leader admitted that he was “struggling because it is so devastating to the Highland communities involved but there are several elements that worry me.”
He also described the report as “probably one of the saddest and most depressing” he had seen whilst being on the council, adding: “This failure for us to deliver for parents, for pupils, for teachers, for communities, for the education build is beyond words.”
That is why he called for more time to investigate all possible opportunities to find some funding for some schools to ease the terrible burden in some areas while calling for more cooperation across council.
But his amendment was defeated by 35 votes to 28 with four abstentions but at least two administration councillors point blank refused to agree – Cllr Margaret Paterson and Pauline Munro.
“There are several elements in this report that worry me,” Cllr Christie said.
“We know there are capacity problems in schools in Inverness yet we do not have a good history of this at this local authority – in fact we have an awful history of predicting school roll numbers.
“Yet the report is saying we will not need a new secondary school in Inverness in five years time, it is saying we won’t need more primary schools – I don’t have the assurance and the confidence that we have got this right, because history and evidence tells me we have not got it right in the past.
“I will be moving an amendment that we don’t approve this report, that we don’t shred the money that has been allocated for St Clement’s, for Park Primary, for Dunvegan, for Culloden, for Charleston by rejecting item three.
“We have to explore every opportunity that we have got, I am not prepared at this stage to actually throw away the money, who is to say that we don’t take some of the PPP windfall to build a school, who is to say we don’t use other mechanisms to build a school.
“Today is premature to do it and we hold faith – and while we are not doing it we talk to the communities in a far better, more coherent way because they are ringing me up from Alness asking me to explain it to them.
“And I don’t think we have explained it particularly well to these school communities so today is not the day to take the money away from these schools, today is the day to show some solidarity with these school communities.”
