PARENTS and politicians reacted furiously after the controversial school closure plans were scrapped in one of the shortest council meetings in memory.

The cost to taxpayers of bringing in 58 councillors on a Saturday and employing officers to draft papers for the emergency meeting is believed to have run into thousands of pounds.

Dozens of parents and pupils protested outside the City Chambers, still angry about the possible threat to schools, and the decision to cut hundreds of free full-time nursery places.

Inside, the meeting lasted just 15 minutes, with no discussion at all about the plans to close 22 schools and four community centres.

Lord Provost George Grubb said: “Motion.” There was a chorus of “Aye”, led by the Lib Dem and SNP members, and the councillors were immediately up on their feet and heading out of the chamber.

However, even after the meeting had finished, the political bickering - which many have claimed played a major part in making the consultation on the scheme unworkable - was going into overdrive.

The administration criticised the Labour and Green groups, which had called the emergency summit, just three working days ahead of a scheduled meeting.

Council leader Jenny Dawe said: “Thanks to Labour and Green incompetent posturing, using the emotive issue of schools rationalisation as a political football, there has been a ridiculous waste of taxpayers’ money.

“The consultation process would have allowed parents, teachers, communities and others to join with us in an open and honest debate, and to help find creative solutions for education in Edinburgh.

“It seems that ‘consultation’ became such a dirty word under the previous administration that people found it hard to believe we were embarking upon a genuine exercise.”

Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, the city’s education leader, said: “What is now needed is a period of calm reflection before initiating further discussion on the children and families estate and on the kind of service we want for the children of Edinburgh.”

However, Labour councillors were furious they were not given a chance to talk about the proposals, which caused uproar in the city before finally being ditched after the SNP rebelled against their coalition partners.

After the meeting, Councillor Andrew Burns, the city’s Labour education spokesman, said:

“They stopped children protesting, stopped parents protesting, and now they are stopping councillors having an open debate.

“It’s completely and totally unacceptable.”

Councillor Lesley Hinds claimed schools have been left in limbo. She said: “I was at a meeting at Stockbridge Primary. They were asking what’s going on here, what does this mean for their school?”

Councillor Jeremy Balfour, the Tory education spokesman, said: “Clearly there is still an issue here with falling pupil rolls, and the administration is going to have to come back and look at it at some point.”

Monsignor Tony Duffy, chaplain at St Cuthbert’s RC Primary, said: “I was disappointed there was no opportunity for a debate, which at this stage would have been helpful.”

Green Party education spokeswoman Alison Johnstone said: “We called this meeting to put a lid on the decision by the Lib Dem/SNP administration to consult on closing schools and community centres.

“We’ve succeeded in doing that but it is a great shame that we were not allowed to debate how best to move forward with this issue.”

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LONDON: Northern Rock, the bank nationalized by the British government, will cut about a third of its 6,000 employees and reduce mortgage lending while seeking European Union approval for its business plan.

The bank plans to become a “smaller, more focused, financially viable mortgage and savings bank, which will be returned to the private sector,” it said Tuesday. The job cuts will be complete by 2011, it said.

Northern Rock, which needed emergency funding when credit markets seized last year, was taken into state ownership last month after borrowing about 25 billion, or $50 billion. The bank, now led by Ron Sandler, the former head of Lloyds of London, will halve its asset base by reducing mortgage lending and repay government loans and guarantees over the next three to four years, it added.

“We are making good progress in developing our provisional business plan,” Sandler said in a statement. “It will be a demanding plan,” which will carry risks, he said.

“Market conditions remain uncertain and a protracted downturn in the housing market would clearly present challenges to its achievement,” he said.

Northern Rocks mortgage market share will be reduced “significantly” below the 2007 level, Sandler said. The bank increased net lending by nearly 50 percent in the first half of 2007, giving it a British mortgage market share of about 19 percent. The bank will seek to increase retail deposits, it added.

Unite, a trade union, will “oppose any plans for compulsory redundancies,” it said in a statement. “Through negotiations we will press Northern Rock to ensure that employee terms and conditions are protected.”

Northern Rock will close its savings unit in Denmark to new customers and repay depositors this year, the company said. It opened an office in Copenhagen in February last year for Internet savings accounts.

British banks and building societies have sought reassurance from the government that the bank will operate “fairly” against private-sector competitors. Sandler said last month that the bank would remain nationalized for years and “compete vigorously” for business.

Northern Rock plans are “being worked up into a full business plan,” which will be submitted to the Treasury for approval by the end this month. The government has told the European Union that it intends to maintain its existing financing for the bank, Northern Rock also said.

New unsecured consumer lending will end and the bank will ensure it does not use government support to compete on an “unfair basis,” the bank said.

Google is readying plans to make a big showing in a coming auction of wireless airwaves. And contrary to recent speculation, the Web-search leader is likely to bid by itself, rather than partner with a company that has more experience building and operating wireless networks, BusinessWeek.com has learned.

The company will make its plans public by Dec. 3, meeting a government deadline set for prospective bidders, according to a person familiar with the matter. The auction, scheduled for January, gives participants a rare opportunity to assemble spectrum for a national network in a single swoop, potentially creating a competitor to existing mobile service providers AT&T («www.businessweek.com») and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications («www.businessweek.com») and Vodafone («www.businessweek.com»).

Google first indicated in July that it might participate in the auction. The Internet search and advertising company had said it was ready to commit “at least $4.6 billion to bidding for spectrum,” but only if certain conditions were met: The «www.businessweek.com» (BusinessWeek.com, 5/3/07) to ensure broad participation in the bidding and to require the creation of “open” networks that let consumers use the phones and services of their choosing. In short, Google wanted to weaken traditional wireless players’ control of the devices consumers can get and how they use them.

The government acceded to only some of the requests, raising doubts about whether Google would in fact participate in the auction. But recently, Google executives revived the notion it might bid—possibly by partnering with others. “One scenario says we could bid with someone else,” Google CEO «investing.businessweek.com» said at an Oct. 24 press conference. He added that Google had “a wealth of options and partners that we are navigating through.” Multibillion-Dollar Prospect

Now that the company is leaning toward going solo, big questions remain over how much Google might need to spend to win what’s expected to be a hotly contested auction, whether it can actually afford the investment, and what it would do with the spoils should it prevail.

Analysts speculate that, all told, the airwaves will fetch more than $14 billion. It’s unclear how big a slice of spectrum Google might pursue, but prices are likely to outstrip the company’s $5.1 billion cash pile. Google’s intention to participate alone in the auction was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. A Google spokesman said in an e-mail: “We’re still evaluating whether and how to participate.” He declined to make an executive available to discuss the plans. Wireless Bases Covered

Financing aside, a wireless newcomer like Google would face a big challenge designing, building, and then operating a mobile network—from towers to huge computer-filled operating centers. It would also have to develop the product lineup and business systems needed to provide mobile services across the country. Many experts contend these constitute too heavy a load for Google alone. The company maintains its own local wireless network at the site of its Mountain View (Calif.) headquarters, but that’s hardly a proxy for a nationwide network.

Google has some other wireless bases covered. It owns large quantities of the fiber-optic cables necessary for carrying wireless calls over long distances—though presumably not so much that it wouldn’t need to rely on national carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. And it has added key wireless talent: Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms, has years of experience in phone design.