Parents and councillors last night accused the ruling Labour administration of Scotland's largest local authority of "political cowardice" as it pushed ahead with plans to shut 21 primary and nursery schools amid angry protests at a special meeting.
Despite impassioned pleas from some of its own councillors and a demonstration that could be heard inside Glasgow City Council's chambers, the group overwhelmingly voted through the raft of proposals that will see 11 primaries and nine nursery schools shut in August.
It will force pupils to move to other establishments, in some cases up to two miles away, and relocate one primary school.
The decision accurately mirrored an internal Labour group decision taken last week, which will leave open only three Glasgow establishments that were listed as facing possible closure. They are Ruchill Primary School and Autism Unit, Shawbridge Nursery School and Nithsdale Road Nursery.
SNP group leader James Dornan said: "What we saw was a classic case of political cowardice by Labour councillors. Today we saw the unacceptable face of Glasgow Labour.
"The cynical manoeuvring of their votes - which allowed every single Labour councillor to vote to save the school or nursery in their ward, knowing that their colleagues were going to vote it down - was breathtaking.
"How arrogant and complacent are they? Don't they realise that those people leaving the chambers in tears used to support them and never will again? Or does Labour still believe that the people of Glasgow will continue to vote for the monkey in a red rosette'?"
Steven Purcell, leader of the council, said the closures and subsequent mergers were in the best interests of the pupils and that the decision had been taken on "the strong recommendations of education professionals in Glasgow".
He said the move was necessary "to get our young people across the city out of schools where buildings are crumbling and pupil numbers are collapsing".
But, in an often heated five-hour debate, peppered with occasional tearful shouts from parents in the public gallery, many Labour members voted against the authority for the proposals in their own areas but went along with the administration for elsewhere.
The city's main opposition, the SNP, said it, along with parents and campaigners, had "won every argument but lost every vote", describ-ing the specially convened meeting as "democracy Glasgow style".
The Liberal Democrats also described it as "USSR-style democracy", with their party leader in the council, Dr Christopher Mason, describing it as "a sham".
Dr Mason also said the decision to shut a raft of Catholic schools would "kill denominational education in Glasgow".
The closure programme, first announced in January, has been marked by a series of roof-top protests and fortnight-long sit-ins by parents objecting.
Some 46 public meetings and more than 7000 formal responses were received as part of the consultation, 96% of which opposed the move.
Dr Mason added: "The Labour councillors were given a dog licence to rebel in their own areas but come back into line elsewhere. The whole process of consultation has been discredited by what happened today. It's a sham."
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Purcell said: "We have had long experience of merging schools across the city and are confident the result provides a new school community that the parents and children feel is as much part of them as their previous school.
"In the past, when we have closed schools we have built new ones, but, in the current global financial climate, we can't afford to build new schools and nurseries, and can no longer use PPP (Public Private Partnership)."
But Labour's whip, Aileen Coleran, said: "It's no surprise that the custom and practice of the Labour group is to allow members the freedom to make decisions on local ward issues."
One of the most contentious decisions involved St Agnes Primary in Cadder, north Glasgow, which currently operates above capacity.
A number of parents in the gallery were reduced to tears during an impassioned speech by local SNP councillor Alex Dingwall on why it and two primaries in nearby Wyndford should be saved.
