Fife SNP councillors are attempting to force a rethink on proposals to close four of the region’s primary schools.
Tanshall Primary in Glenrothes, along with Pitcorthie and Wellwood in Dunfermline and Crombie Primary are among seven earmarked for closure by Fife Council. The others are Rathillet, New Gilston and Dunino primaries.
The announcement on April 9 followed a five-month review of the school estate as the local authority battles to bridge a £70 million funding gap.
Council leader Alex Rowley said some closures were necessary to ensure money went towards educating children rather than shoring up deteriorating buildings.
However, while the decision by the executive committee will be scrutinised before going out to formal consultation with parents and teachers, moves have been made to save the Glenrothes and West Fife schools.
SNP group leader Peter Grant, who last week accused the council of betraying the region’s children, has succeeded in ensuring the Tanshall decision is called in to next week’s scrutiny committee amid claims it was made with “indecent haste”.
The three West Fife schools will also be considered by the committee following a request by Dunfermline SNP councillor Brian Goodall.
Mr Grant said: “We were all left feeling a bit numb at the council’s indecent haste to start the legal process of school closures, but having had time to look in more detail at the report it’s obvious the process so far has been totally inadequate.
“Too many vitally important questions remain unanswered and once the statutory process starts we might not even be allowed to ask them.”
He added: “As well as representing our own community in Tanshall, I have a real concern about the executive being rushed into a decision about other schools in Fife.
“The scrutiny committee next week may be our one and only chance to stop this flawed process before it gets out of control.”
Mr Goodall said: “These specific school closure plans were kept under wraps until just a week before the executive committee made its choice to push forward with them.
“We are calling on the Labour administration to rethink their position, call a halt to any formal closure consultations and allow full local consideration of all options to be carried out, with input from the people most affected, the pupils and parents.”
Mr Rowley, however, said as much information on the school estate as possible was published several months ago and every parent was invited to a series of meetings to discuss the proposals.
“I believe people accepted there were issues with the school estate that needed to be addressed,” he said.
“The easiest thing for any politician is to do nothing but the people who will lose from that will be the school pupils of today and future generations of school pupils.
“If we back off this, kids will suffer right across Fife.”
Adding that Fife was well below the Scottish average in terms of achievement and attainment, Mr Rowley said: “We have to address that and part of it is through the school estate.
“Twenty-one schools in Fife are in poor condition and others have varying degrees of need for investment. We also have disparity of spend, with children in some schools having £17,000 spent on them and others having as little as £3,000 spent.
“We then have some schools bursting at the seams and others with empty classrooms.
“I know there is deep-rooted concern and worry among people in the affected schools, but if we do nothing we will be shoring up crumbling buildings rather than getting investment into schools.”
For exclusive news of a radical proposal to save £6 million in the school budget, see Thursday’s Courier.