The Stracathro school community has delivered a clear message to Angus Council chiefs that they will do whatever it takes to avert what was branded the “cost-driven, self-fulfilling prophecy” of the local primary’s closure.
At a public meeting to discuss the authority’s proposal to shut the village school and transfer pupils to Edzell – along with axing the currently empty glens schools at Tarfside and Lethnot – parents of pupils present and past made impassioned pleas in what is the second fight to save the highly-regarded facility.
And the council was challenged to bin the “daft” idea of shutting Stracathro and avoid “alienating” rural residents.
Following a string of drop-in consultation sessions, Inglis Hall in Edzell staged the formal public meeting which the council arranged after bowing to pressure from those fighting to retain the school.
Angus Council strategic director Mark Armstrong spoke of the “very ambitious vision for the entire school estate”, which the authority revealed in a 30-year schools for the future blueprint that will also this week set the ball rolling on possible changes to Monifieth cluster provision – including an option to create a multi-million pound community campus in the burgh.
“We want to give all our children and young people in Angus the same access to opportunities,” Mr Armstrong said.
But he told the hall that the councillors who will make the decision on the shape of the school estate faced a “balancing act”.
“We need to improve the school estate, to make it more sustainable, but overall we need a smaller estate,” he said.
Leading campaigner Lee Ann Waddell, vice-chair of the school’s parent council, who has already called for the plan to be called in by the Scottish Government, said: “There are so many things wrong with this consultation I don’t know where to begin.
“Not a second thought has been given to keeping the school open. Contradictions during the consultation so far have been rife and the sums just don’t add up,” she said.
Community figure Hugh Campbell Adamson told the council panel: “Not a single parent wants the school to close.
“You are telling the parents of Stracathro that they do not know what’s good for their children and I find that very worrying.
“Good people previously managed to stop this daft idea, don’t let it happen now.
“All you are going to do is alienate the countryside and prove to us all that you only want to centralise,” he said.
Angus Council leader and local Independent councillor Bob Myles was put under pressure over a claim he told a pre-consultation meeting that Stracathro was not under threat, and although he declined to respond to that, he assured the community their views would be taken on board.
“This is a consultation and as councillors we are indebted to everyone for their contributions – they will be listened to,” he said.
