THE Scottish Government is facing a backlash from councils over proposals to make it more difficult to close schools.
Glasgow City Council and North Lanarkshire Council have both attacked ministers' plans, suggesting the measures demonstrate interference in local democracy from central government.
The row has blown up over proposed amendments affecting the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.
Key proposals include a new presumption against the closure of rural schools and an emphasis on councils having to show the educational benefit to pupils when a school is closing.
The Scottish Government has also suggested setting up an independent appeals process for parents unhappy with a council decision.
A five-year moratorium could also be introduced to prevent local authorities returning to close a school that has been saved.
The submission from North Lanarkshire, to a consultation that closed on September 2, says the council believes provision of education "is primarily a responsibility of democratically elected local councils".
It states: "As such local authorities should be empowered to manage their estate fully and will be held to account by their electorate in this regard."
The council goes on to say it is not convinced the proposals for an independent review of decisions will make the process any better.
North Lanarkshire also argues it should be acceptable for councils to conclude that the educational impact of any closure proposal is neutral, rather than improving education.
The submission from Glasgow agrees, describing the inclusion as unfortunate. It states: "In terms of absolute transparency it is critical that local authorities are able to put forward the economic arguments for school closure proposals, particularly in terms of how they may impact on other aspects of education service delivery or other local authority service delivery."
An independent referral mechanism would "introduce another tier of bureaucracy within an already over complex and time-consuming system", the council adds.
However, Sandy Longmuir, spokesman for the Scottish Rural Schools Network, said it was proper for central government to have an overview of local government decisions. He said: "Mistakes are often made. It is vital parents have an independent process that can hold councils to account."
Education Secretary Michael Russell said: "School closures are an emotive issue for all communities and it is important that they are dealt with in an open, effective and transparent manner."
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 hereComments are closed on this article