Fife Council’s Labour-led administration has been accused of pushing forward politically-motivated school closures.
Previous administration leader and SNP councillor Peter Grant claimed the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath areas had been deliberately spared in the council’s school estate review.
The executive committee was discussing a forthcoming consultation on the proposed closure of seven primary schools.
Mr Grant said: “There’s nothing in the executive committee reports to say this is why you’re picking on Glenrothes but leaving the Cowdenbeath area and the Kirkcaldy area, leaving them for some other time after the next election.”
Administration leader Alex Rowley defended the review process, reiterating the council’s position that doing nothing was not an option.
He said: “Public meetings have been held across Fife and presentations given on the condition of the school estate and the options available to the council.
“We have a major issue in terms of our school estate. If we had hundreds of millions to throw at our school estate then we wouldn’t have to shut a school.
“The issue is not about buildings. The issue is about the type of education we want to provide right across Fife.”
Schools earmarked for closure are Wellwood, Crombie, Pitcorthie, Tanshall, Rathillet, New Gilston and Dunino primaries.
The committee was asked to consider documents setting out evidence supporting the proposals. Out of the 15 committee members present, 13 voted to approve the reports and move forward to the consultation.
Mr Grant and Brian Goodall called for the documents to be called in for scrutiny, but Mr Rowley gave an assurance that approval did not rule out scrutiny.
Mr Rowley said: “Every elected member of this council, if they wish to go to scrutiny, can sign a form for it to go to scrutiny.
“If the scrutiny committee believe there are issues with this then they can come back to the executive committee and ask the executive committee to change its position. There are processes in place to take this forward.”
Mr Goodall said: “I think it is vital that we are given the opportunity for further scrutiny before this goes out to statutory consultation. I’m sure that if the executive doesn’t agree to that at this stage, then members will certainly be asking to make that happen through other mechanisms.”
Council officers were legally required to outline the educational benefits of the proposed closures and rezoning of catchment areas. Referring to the proposed closure of Tanshall Primary School in Glenrothes, Mr Grant said the document failed to outline the educational benefits of the existing school.
“I know for a fact that a lot of these things listed as benefits are already happening at the school at a very high standard,” he said.
Ken Greer, executive director of education and learning, said: “What we are doing is arguing that there will be improvements. That isn’t to imply that provision at that school isn’t good at the moment.”
Letters are to be sent to parents of pupils affected by the changes, informing them of the consultation on school closures.
These are expected to be sent out around September 13/14. The consultation is scheduled to go ahead between September 16 and November 8.