Parents reacted with dismay when Donald MacKay revealed it would cost around £300,000 of council taxpayers' money
to finance the purchase of portakabins to house pupils in temporary accommodation, if the council's plans to axe five Midlothian
primary schools are given the green light.
The revelation came during last night's highly-charged public consultation meeting at Dalkeith Community Campus, where
council plans for a number of the schools and nurseries were discussed. The proposals, according Midlothian Council, will
create schools that are fit to deliver education for the 21st century.
In the case of Cranston Primary School, the proposals include plans to close the school in June and move pupils to temporary
accommodation at the already overcrowded Pathhead Primary School site. Thereafter, pupils from both schools will be moved to a
new PPP funded school to be built at some time in the future.
In addition to the cost of portakabins, temporary plans for the Pathhead site include ancillary costs for leasing land
adjacent to the school, site preparation, hard landscaping, structural alterations to the existing building, rearrangement
of the existing playground and car parking facilities as well as the creation of a safe drop off point for buses and cars
away from the notorious A68.
Jim Murray, Chairman of the Cranston School Board says:
'We'd dispute that our school needs refurbishment in the first place. And we're pleased that the Pathhead parents will
be getting a new school for their children. But if the Council were to allocate just half the money it's prepared to spend
on this temporary move, then the School Board, parents at Cranston, and the Council could work together to spend it more
effectively and create a school environment that not only exceeds the requirements of the 21st century, but would last well
into the 22nd and 23rd centuries as well.'
The proposals to rush through the closures have attracted considerable opposition, with the various action groups involved
attracting widespread support from parents, the local communities and politicians. A major criticism has been the focus on
buildings rather than education, with MacKay openly admitting that it is the standard of teaching that determines educational
effectiveness.
Jo Church-Olney, a Cranston parent, says:
'The more we hear, the less sense it all makes. Why spend all this money when anyone can see that our children are happy,
secure and receiving an excellent education where they are? At the moment, it costs only £38 per child a year more than the
national average to provide our children with all the benefits that everyone knows being in a smaller rural school provides.
That's less than £2,500 for the whole school, not hundreds of thousands. And not the millions that the Council is preparing
to spend in the years ahead. People in Midlothian should be questioning all of this'
