A senior Angus councillor says a “corporate decision” is the reason parents have been left waiting to discover whether their children get the day off school for the royal wedding.
Authorities across Scotland, including Dundee, Perth and Kinross and Fife, have already announced that schools will shut for the big day on April 29. But Angus councillors will not take a decision until March 15, leaving furious parents with a last-minute childcare headache.
Education convener Peter Nield hinted that the schools would close but insisted procedures needed to be followed across the whole of the council.
“If permission (for an extra school day off) has come through from Holyrood, a corporate decision would be made,” he said. “It has to be the whole council, not just the schools shutting. Because Angus Council work on a six-seven week cycle, the decision will not be made until a strategic policy meeting on March 15.
“My own view is I can’t believe it wouldn’t be a day off. I would certainly back the day off but my hands are tied.”
The date has been marked as an official public holiday across the UK. But with the holiday only “discretionary,” some parents will find themselves working and facing the problem of finding childcare.
Mr Nield said he was hopeful that Angus Council would be granted the extra day and said the education department “intended taking it off.”
“As soon as it comes out we will let parents know,” he said. “The message I would give to parents is I would find it exceptionally unlikely if Angus doesn’t close its schools for the day.
“If parents have made plans to celebrate the wedding and the schools remain open parents will not be penalised for keeping their kids off. We are not killjoys.”
An Angus Council spokeswoman said the final decision would be made at the strategic policy committee meeting next month.
She said, “We consider that a decision made on March 15 gives parents ample time to make alternative childcare arrangements if or where necessary.”