Uproar as schools plan is binned in 15 minutes
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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