Monday 19 October 2009

COUNCIL ADMIT THEY GOT IT WRONG!!!!


On one of my many searches online I found this posted on a Glasgow based website to my amazement this information has not been shared with the parents the council have so badly let down.


Posted on Glasgow Based website:

In an embarrassing gaffe by members of Glasgow City Council, revealed over the weekend, it was shown that the principal reason put forward for the closure of nearly two dozen schools in the city earlier this year could not now be supported by official statistics. In April this year leading Labour politicians within the country's largest local authority revealed that they intended to close a significant number of city schools because of "falling school rolls". However, it has since been found that school rolls in Glasgow are actually on the increase, although city council planners and politicians claim that the rising number of children attending schools in the city has taken them by surprise.Councillor Stephen Curran, the politician responsible for overseeing service reform within the council, confirmed the rise in pupil numbers when he said that there were "more children in Glasgow than we had been expecting". In an added development the councillor intimated that the rise in school rolls would now mean that politicians would have to make an extra £2million in cuts to the city's education budget to accommodate for the increased number of pupils in city classrooms.Although pupil numbers are on the rise, the council has appeared to rule out any possibility of a reversal of the controversial, and deeply unpopular, closure of 20 city schools earlier this year. In a number of cases - as with Barmulloch Primary School in Glasgow North East (shown below) - the school has already been demolished, despite the fact that the term has only recently started.
It is an appalling situation that our council have left us in but I can't help wondering if these are in fact new figures to the council or just another cover up by our city council officials as they begin to look at the rising costs of the repairs to the few schools that were keep open. Glasgow City Council has failed again whatever way you look at it but surprise surprise its not the councillors who are paying for the mistakes NO ITS OUR CHILDREN AGAIN!!!.
We cannot let this mayhem within our city continue if you can write, email or hound your local councillors ask them to explain why our children have to suffer for there never ending mistakes, make sure you have a voice and make sure it is heard before more of our valuable schools are lost.
Lynn Scott

1 comment:

  1. In my experience, this is an all too common situation facing parents at schools facing the axe anywhere in the UK.

    Parents with little or no experience having to fight the combined might of local government and the law to reach sensible education solutions for their children.

    I am a grandparent and the Chair of a local parents' action group that fought Sunderland City Council to stop the proposed closure of Gillas Lane Primary School. We fought for 15 months and won our case through The Schools Adjudicator. Our web site is www.savegillaslaneschool.info and this details our fight.

    In many ways we had advantages over Scottish parents when I have looked at the Scottish legislation. We had an independent appeals process through the schools adjudicator where there was no hidden agenda. We made our case on the basis of the statutory guidance and were vindicated.

    We also challenged the council on their figures for pupil and housebuilding projections strongly and proved that the council's figures were underestimates to try and fit in with their proposals.

    I have also set up a web site to try and generalise on our experiences and provide some much needed guidance for parents wishing to take action but not knowing where to start. The site is at http://parentsagainstschoolclosure.davesinfocafe.com

    I will put a link on my site to yours because I have been asked on several occasions for advice on the situation in Scotland. As my site is mostly about the English situation I have not been able to be very knowledgable. I have, however, put links on my site to the respective legislation that governs school closures in Scotalnd and Wales.

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