PARENTS fighting to save three village primary schools from closure have been thrown a lifeline.
Dumfries and Galloway Council has announced a “pause” in the process to shut Ae, Garlieston and Kirkbean schools, which have a combined total of 37 pupils.
The move comes after widespread concern officials failed to follow correct procedures in its consultation process. The council disputes the allegations.
Under the 2010 Schools Consultation (Scotland) Act a number of safeguards were introduced to reflect the importance of schools to fragile rural and remote communities.
The Act stipulates a presumption against closure and lays down obligations on the part of the council - including the requirement to prove any closure will bring educational benefits.
However, parents believe the consultation contained factual errors and that any decision to close would have been “called in” by the Scottish Government for review.
A joint statement from campaigners at all three schools said: “These schools are the focal point of their close-knit rural communities.
“There were deep reservations throughout the entire process and families felt ignored and frustrated by the council’s lack of consideration for the facts.
“We now hope councillors will vote to drop the closure process completely and give schools, families and communities the hard earned and justly fought victory they deserve.”
Joan McAlpine, an SNP MSP who raised concerns about the closures in the Scottish Parliament, said she believed the council would now back down.
She said: “I am confident that this is a victory and council members will turn this pause into a full stop.
“It is a welcome acknowledgement of the strength of feeling against the proposed closures which would have resulted in the inexorable decline of the villages targeted.
“We were able to pick apart the council officers’ case for closure which was based on flawed figures, a flawed consultation process and a misunderstanding of the law.”
Sandy Longmuir, chairman of the Scottish Rural Schools Network, accused the council of “multiple breaches” of the 2010 Act.
He said: “If this goes ahead I cannot conceive of any way that documents of the standard produced by the council would not result in a review from Scottish ministers.
“So many times in the past councils have claimed that closure proposals are about education and that financial considerations are secondary.
“Even if this were true in this case it is not an excuse for getting it so badly wrong.”
A council spokesman confirmed that there would be a “pause” in the process to assess feedback.
He said: “The formal process to consider the future of three of our rural schools has reached the end of the first stage in the process and received wide ranging representations from parents, community and politicians.
“It’s important the council has the time to listen and consider these fully before determining future stages.
“At this time the council has decided to ask officers to pause the process and take extra time to consider the representations rather than progressing with the next phase of consultation.”
The council said schools quango Education Scotland - which has to be consulted as part of the process - had been informed of the decision.
The schools were originally identified by the council for closure because pupil rolls have fallen below 50 per cent capacity.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here