Councillors have been urged to put their creative problem solving skills to good use and halt the proposed closure of five rural schools.

At the third of five consultation meetings into Midlothian Council’s education shake-up, parents rounded on the local authority over its plans to close Cranston and Cousland Primaries. Under the proposals, discussed at the Dalkeith Schools Community Campus, Pathhead Primary will be rebuilt, Woodburn refurbished and Thornybank Nursery relocated to within Woodburn School.

Cousland parent Billy Lumsden said he had been “baffled” by certain aspects of the proposals, which he added “did not suggest the educational welfare of the children had been taken into consideration.”

In light of Midlothian Council’s deal to save Edinburgh Crystal, Mr Lumsden continued: “Midlothian has an impressive record of creative problem solving. We would urge you to give us the opportunity to work creatively with you in this way and continue the development of fine rural schools whilst also implementing some of the good points in the proposals.”

Cranston school board chairman Jim Murray was critical of the consultation period being offered. “By God, they have excelled themselves on this,” he said of the council. “Why the rush? We have been given the absolute minimum for discussion. There is one public meeting for the schools here tonight. There is no pro-active dialogue by the council with the parents, consultation with the schools boards.

“Ninety five per cent of parents are against the proposals and 83 per cent believe Cranston Primary School is still a viable proposition.”

Thornybank Nursery parent John Devine questioned the reasons being put forward by the council to close the premises and relocate the nursery to within Woodburn Primary. The nursery was unaware of problems with its heating and hot water system, the outside play surface and perimeter fence had been replaced in the past six months and proposals to provide wrap around care at the nursery had been ignored by the council.

“Children’s education is being sacrificed by the egotistical, showcasing mentality of this council,” he claimed.

Pathhead primary school board chairman Jean Drummond said parents were “very positive” about the proposals to rebuild the “thriving village” school. She agreed that the lack of space in the school limited the potential use of the building.

“The proposals for a larger new school have been welcomed. It is something desperately needed in the village and should enhance the children’s experience of primary school,” said Mrs Drummond.

However, there were concerns about the timing of the rebuild and the parents’ shock at reading of the proposals in the newspaper.

Woodburn Primary’s representative said parents viewed the refurbishment of the school as necessary and hoped that the measures were not dependant on the closure of other schools.

He sought assurances there would be “minimum” disruption for all if Cousland and Thornybank children were incorporated in the school. And he raised questions about where pupils would be housed while the renovation work was being carried out.

I write on behalf of the local branch of the SNP in full support of the parents of children who will lose their schools under Midlothian's school closure programme.

It is sad and sick that Midlothian has, over a long period of time, worked on these closures quietly and without public knowledge or discussion and then come out with the proposals as a fait accompli and give the parents, teachers and children just 28 days and a few meetings to make their dissent.

To give an idea of time scale, the re-generation of Bonnyrigg has been on the drawing board for years and the time scale has again been expanded as the public, community council and councillors want more time to make changes before it is activated.

Why should this criteria not be given to the parents in rural areas before they tear the hearts out of rural communities?

It is also very devious of the local authorities to give 28 days which take in the Easter break, when many families go away, thereby lessening their opportunity of protest.

These schools are not just schools, they are the hub of rural life.

Parents, teachers, and pupils work tirelessly to generate funding for the benefit of their schools.

Fund-raising events are the hub of the community as everyone gets involved to redecorate, to buy essential equipment to give days out and weekend breaks.

The children generate their friendship by making friends, sharing their homes, coming for tea, sleepovers, sharing sports, swimming, hockey, netball, pony riding, running etc etc. There is very little going on in their village but they work tirelessly to create an environment to overcome this and help their growing up process.

Our caring council is prepared to take all this away and bus them long distances and put them in portable buildings for a few years until the new schools are built.

What is happening is criminal and we in the SNP will stand alongside of them and fight with them for justice and retainment of the status quo.

We hope sincerely they protest vigorously, petition, march, appeal to Parliament, take legal advice and action and do everything possible to retain the most valuable thing a village can have - a local school.

William Cameron Scott
Vice-Chairman Bonnyrigg & Lasswade SNP
Bonnyrigg

What most amazes me about the school debacle is not, in fact, the rights or wrongs of the proposals in themselves (how can I judge them on such limited information?) but our council's inability to produce any independent and authoritative evidence of educational merit in our favour.

We have no criteria for selecting which schools are to be refurbished and which are to be rebuilt, no indication of estimated costs for the maintenance backlog and no reassurance to the parents of children in the schools not mentioned in the programme that resources will still be available when their school needs work done.

So why the secrecy over an issue with such an impact for many people in Midlothian? And why such a short consultation period?

It is clear that development plans of such enormity have not been thought up overnight - yet Midlothian Council's Annual Plan (2003/2004) uploaded onto the internet early 2004 obfuscates the issue, and no reference to the proposal was made pre last May's election.

Even Labour members of the Scottish Parliament knew nothing. It was left to the Tory James Douglas Hamilton to try and remedy this democratic deficit, and he quickly raised a motion condemning the closures following a tip-off from concerned parents.

These plans are designed to minimise parental choice in their children's education. They are only about buildings and management efficiencies. This is a systemic failure brought about by the desire of the council to close down small, single stream (and in this case rural) primary schools.

Midlothian Council's proposals are removing from parents the opportunity to fulfil the duty we all feel to do what is best for our own children.

Only by having a choice of school types and by being allowed to exercise that choice can we attempt to do that.

Marnie Crawford
Midlothian Conservative and Unionist Association
Lasswade

The council wants us to move twice, but we do not need to move at all. The school has been well furnished in the last five years - things such as double glazed windows, new heating, playground resurfacing, giant playground games, a soundproof wall, new carpets, blinds and bright-coloured walls for the most pleasant learning environment possible.

We also have a PC suite with seven PCs and new resources in the classrooms.

Some people say that people from small schools won't adapt to high school so easily as people from big schools because there are so many more people there, but people from Borthwick do well at high school because they have learned to work independently and to be responsible and organised. That's what the high school teachers say.

Elliot Pemberton (11), North Middleton
Calum Mackie (11), Middleton Mains

Those of us who attended the series of education public meetings last week can be in no doubt that major changes are needed Midlothian House.

At every meeting there was opposition to the proposals for school closures and amalgamations, and even stronger opposition to the way the changes had been, and are being, managed. Councillors were forced to listen while parent groups ripped apart the document they had used as the basis of their decisions.

As a parent of two children at Temple Primary it is predictable that I should object to the proposals, but it hasn't only been the parents of the schools proposed for closure who have expressed their anger and disappointment.

The Director of Education and his senior officials can achieve little without parental and community support. Despite this, they have spent two years preparing their plan in secrecy, excluding parents, many teachers, and communities from all initial discussions.

Who now has confidence in this team to deliver a better future for the children of Midlothian?

Irene Stewart
Temple

Now that three consultation meetings concerning the five rural schools threatened with closure have taken place, it must be obvious to everyone that the whole consultation process is fundamentally flawed.

The "letters" informing us of the start of the consultation process were glossy leaflets delivered by pupil post - the council did not have the courtesy to write to parents individually.

The multiple choice postcard included with it was a farce, and the time allowed for school representatives to form a response was minimal.

The time allowed to give the response at the meetings was just 10 minutes per school, which was not long enough to give a full reply to the Cabinet document, considering the huge number of factual inaccuracies contained within that document that had to be corrected.

The director of education's presentation ate into the time available for discussion, and at the end of each meeting there were people left with questions unasked. It must be clear that there is a mountain of opposition to these flawed plans.

At his surgery on Saturday, Bob Jenkins and Jim Muirhead, who was also present, both expressed sympathy for the position of those involved with the rural schools. Councillor Jenkins suggested a rural forum to discuss how to take forward the problems of the rural schools constructively.

While we agreed that this is a step in the right direction, the fact is that the Cabinet paper was drafted, at a reputed cost of £140,000 without any consideration of the rural issues whatsoever. The council was therefore completely ignorant of any rural issues relating to the proposed closures.

The only way I can see of moving forward with Midlothian Council retaining any credibility would be to take the rural schools completely out of the paper and to continue with the other plans to carry out the much-needed improvements to the other schools. The rural issues can then be debated with all those involved, and without undue pressure.

Alan Pemberton
North Middleton
Gorebridge

I am writing to express my disappointment at the lack of engagement by elected members at last Thursday's public meeting at Dalkeith Community Campus. Councillors missed a great opportunity to encourage parents to have meaningful and constructive involvement in the process. The council leader, Adam Montgomery, was defensive throughout.

The first 25 minutes of the meeting were taken up with the director of education's slick presentation that provided no new information. This considerably restricted the time allowed for questions from the audience. Each school/nursery was allocated 10 minutes to present their case to a hall packed full of parents, school staff and MSPs and a row of stony-faced councillors.

Questions were asked during each presentation, but unfortunately these remain unanswered. Only some questions from the audience were answered directly and Mr Montgomery promised that others would be summarised by Mr Mackay at the end of the evening. Unfortunately the meeting was closed without the promised summary.

Midlothian Council has been accused by many of paying lip service to consultation.

This was confirmed when a boy in the audience who raised his hand to ask a question was ignored for 10 minutes. His mother then raised her hand and was handed the microphone straight away.

She pointed out that Mr Montgomery had again missed an opportunity to involve children in the consultation, and she passed the microphone to her son who described his experience of large and small schools articulately and passionately. Councillors must remember that they are elected to represent the views of their constituents and that to do this they must do more than hear their views, they must listen.

Karen Beggs
Newtongrange