PARENTS who want their children to play a musical instrument at school will face charges of more than £350 a year, a local authority has ruled.
West Lothian Council has introduced the fees as part of moves to safeguard music tuition - which had been threatened with the axe.
The council's education committee said pupils from the poorest backgrounds would not have to pay the fees - which have been introduced for tuition in strings, percussion, brass, woodwind and piping.
Read more: Council to cut music tuition
However, campaigners argued the fees are too high and will lead to a reduction in the number of students taking up instruments.
Yvonne Hall, a spokeswoman for the Save Our Strings and Percussion campaign group, said: “We are pleased the committee has recognised that people would rather pay for a service than see it cut altogether, but we believe the £354 is vastly inflated.
"We had worked out a figure of £5 per week to cover the first year’s costs while we launch a charitable trust which would be able to apply for funding not available to the council and allow us to mitigate the impact of charges.
"We are requesting that the council works with us in the next few days to look at ways to reduce the cost of instrumental music tuition to families."
The council, which is facing budget savings of £65 million over the next five years, said a survey of families who used the instrumental music service had found 53 per cent supporting charges to maintain lessons.
The council said the money it received from the Scottish Government was significantly less than what was needed to cover the rising costs of providing council services.
Read more: Music tuition facing 'death by a thousand cuts'
David Dodds, the council's education spokesman, said: “Our priority throughout this process has always been creating a sustainable model for the instrumental music service that protects music tuition for the greatest number of pupils.
"It is clear from our survey that a majority of West Lothian families want to retain strings and percussion tuition and would be willing to pay to do so.
“Therefore we have made the difficult decision to bring in charges that would allow us to retain tuition across all current musical disciplines, and maintain the service in its current form."
Mr Dodds said he was aware charges could have adverse effects in the longer term, reducing the number of participants and impacting on the quality of the service.
He added: "Instrumental music is not a statutory service and we do not have to provide it. The vast majority of Scottish councils already charge for instrumental music lessons.
"The charge is necessary to allow us provide the current level of service and includes an allowance for the introduction of concessions, a drop in uptake and non-payment."
The council is to write to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to highlight the fact the decision is a "direct consequence" of the "failure" of the Scottish Government to fully fund local authorities.
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