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  • Media articles - 03/06/2004

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    The Advertiser - Page 3

    Reproduced with kind permission from The Advertiser.

    Disappointment at decision to close Howgate School

    Community leaders in Howgate have expressed disappointment at the imminent closure of the village school.

    The primary, which shuts its doors at the end of the month, is the first of the rural schools to be affected by Midlothian council's £50 million education reforms.

    At the 11th hour parents put forward a proposal to the local authority for the establishment of a trust, which would be responsible for the repair and maintenance of the school building.

    Howgate Community Council chairman Gary Stoddart said: "The Howgate community can accept that difficult decisions have to be made and that the closure of Howgate School is only part of a larger strategy."

    "However, what is particularly disappointing – especially for parents of children at the school – is the manner in which this decision has been taken."

    "Parents have in recent weeks put considerable effort into exploring a sustainable, alternative solution to closure.

    "Unfortunately, it seems that Midlothian Council is simply not prepared to offer even a limited period for alternative opinions to be explored in full.

    "Given the long history of the school, it is regrettable that its closure is being undertaken with such great haste."

    The community council has accused the local authority of dealing a "double whammy" since the school closure decision came only months after planning permission was granted for a Miller Homes development in the centre of the village.

    Mr Stoddart added: "The justification given for this unwanted development has been a desire to support the school. That's stated in black and white in the Finalised Local Plan, adopted only last December. Planning permission was granted in January on the back of that justification.

    "Six weeks later that council announces that it now wishes to see the school closed."

    "Unfortunately our appeals for reconsideration in the light of changed circumstances have so far fallen on deaf ears."

    Mr Stoddart said the community council intended to raise its concerns with the Federation of Midlothian Community Councils.

    The Advertiser - Page 4

    Reproduced with kind permission from The Advertiser.

    Letters to the Editor

    School fight goes on

    So they've done it! They've boldly gone where no council in England or Wales would dare to go (because it's against the law down there!) – Midlothian's labour Group has voted close all five rural schools.

    In our situation the possibility of a new option, a new school at Middleton, was thrown in at the very last minute. The wording of the proposal "That Temple/Borthwick be closed. Subject to securing appropriate funding a new school is to be provided..etc" is highly suspicious.

    How can councillors vote to close a school on such a loose arrangement without knowing site, size, location and definite funding source of the proposed alternative? Why did the motion not read "That the schools merge and relocate to.." as in the Bryans/Langlaw option?

    Why spend £4 million on a new school when Temple and Borthwick are working well as they are. No financial or educational evidence has been provided to prove anything to the contrary and the claim of the "maintenance timebomb" – the structural survey turned out to be not true.

    We are the losers – Temple Village, with its expanding nursery and active Village Hall Association; Carrington, and the families living in the outlying area to the south around Gladhouse Reservoir.

    The Temple catchment area is almost 20 square miles and surely justifies its own busy, successful school.

    Our boys will have to travel nine miles to Middleton if this new school is built and families at Moorfoot and Huntlycot will be 10 miles away. Nowhere in the whole of the Lothians do children have to travel even half of that distance to their local school. Why are these children being discriminated against? They may be very few in number but that doesn't' make them any less important.

    Councillors acknowledged that the Director of Education's report was full of mistakes and unsubstantiated claims. So why did they vote on it and not relegate it to the bucket where it belongs? The fight will go on.

    Hazel Brown
    Toxside Farm
    Temple

    Education is ruined

    Well done Donald Mackay, you have closed our school and in your own words you have succeeded. The consultation period was, for us as parents, to air our views and concerns but the whole process was a total farce from beginning to end.

    You never at any time took into consideration our children's educational needs or their welfare. For over three months now this has been a living nightmare for the children and parents.

    We only have under five weeks until the school closes which means we now have to make quick decisions on new schools for the August intake.

    Not only have your ruined our children's education closing an excellent school, you have also shown a lack of respect by publishing children's details on a CD-ROM available to anyone.

    We will continue to fight our school's closure and we urge everyone to fight for us and to give us the support they can as this man cannot be allowed to do any more damage to our children and our rural schools.

    Name and Address supplied

    The Peeblesshire News - Website

    Reproduced with kind permission from The Peeblesshire News.

    Howgate residents still battling

    Link to The Peeblesshire News website.

    RESIDENTS in the Howgate area are still unhappy about Midlothian Council's decisions to close the local primary school and to grant consent for the building of a further 24 houses in the village.

    The Community Council has written to Midlothian's Chief executive, Trevor Muir, expressing its "extreme disappointment" at the decision to close the school and in particular, according to chairman Gary Stoddart, the manner in which the decision was taken.

    "Parents have in recent weeks put considerable effort into exploring a sustainable alternative solution to closure," he said.

    "Unfortunately, it seems that Midlothian Council is simply not prepared to offer even a limited period for alternative options to be explored in full."

    Proposals for the establishment of a trust fund to take over the running of Howgate School were put forward at the last minute by parents, but were dismissed by Council Leader Adam Montgomery as "a non-starter".

    Local councillor David Fletcher, who proposed a delay on closure, agreed and told the "Penicuik News" this week: "As soon as the proposals were announced I suggested that parents would need to look at a radical solution if they wanted to keep the school open.

    "Jeremy Purvis (the local MSP) and I told the parents that the setting up of an independent school could be the way forward.

    "We eventually suggested that they contact the Regius Christian School and the Steiner School in Edinburgh for advice, but by that time they had come up with the plans they put to the Council.

    "Why they left it so late and then came up with an idea that no Council could ever accept politically, I cannot say."

    The Community Council is also incensed at the decision to close the school in the light of the planning consent only six weeks previously for a 24-house development by Miller Homes in the village.

    "The justification given for this unwanted development has been a desire to support the school," said Mr Stoddart.

    "Planning permission was granted in January on the back of that justification. Six weeks later the Council announces that it wishes to see the school closed."

    The Community Council is also looking to the Midlothian Federation for support

    "Howgate is going to set a precedent," said Mr Stoddart.

    Not everyone in the village is happy with the stand being taken by the Community Council.

    "When the then Community Council carried out a survey, the majority of people in the village were not against development, said one.

    "Only a fraction of the children at the school come from the Howgate area so it's hard to see why there is such a fuss."




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    Last Updated : 07 August 2004