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Schools Closures - The Final Reckoning

May 21, 2009

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On Thursday 23 April 2009 when Glasgow City Council voted to close 11 primary schools and 9 nursery schools, the LOCAL NEWS had reporter Martin Graham inside listening to the debate and reporter Elyas Hussain outside with the crowds of Save Our Schools campaigners.
Here are their accounts of these historic events which were ratified by the Council Executive the following day. Since then, parents have agreed to seek legal advice on whether they can appeal against the decision which they consider will take the heart out of their communities.

OUTSIDE by Elyas Hussain
It all ends in Tears
Parents and campaigners were left in floods of tears as, one by one, the decisions to close schools were announced at the full Council meeting.
The Council’s plan to close 23 primary and nursery schools across the city had attracted widespread opposition including sit-ins, people chaining themselves to railings and rooftop demonstrations.
Despite more than 7,200 responses and around 96% of people in the consultations objecting to the closures, the Council went ahead to confirm the Labour Group’s prior agreement to close 11 primaries and nine nurseries.
Nithsdale Nursery School in Pollokshields, Shawbridge Nursery School in Pollokshaws and Ruchill Primary School were the only ones saved from closure.
On the day before the full Council met, protesters started a 24 hour vigil outside the City Chambers.
On D for Decision day, between 800 and 1,000 people gathered outside the building. There was a strong police presence and metal crowd control railings fenced in the protesters. The demonstration was organised by Save Our Schools campaigners. Councillors such as David Meikle, the sole Conservative Party member on the Council and Danny Alderslowe, Green Party, spoke with people in the crowd. Said Danny: ‘They are playing games with people’s lives and splitting up communities. We are opposed to the closures. At the next election, Labour will not be re-elected.’
One of the first schools to be confirmed for closure was St Agnes in Cadder.
Diane Beat, who has a 5 year old daughter there, came out of the meeting close to tears. She said: ‘This was a complete sham because they had decided in advance to close our school - even although our school role is at 66%. This was not even taken into account. And our children are going to be transported in un-roadworthy buses to get to their new school.’
Brenda Begley who has a daughter at Victoria Primary burst into tears as the news came through of that school’s closure: ‘We are absolutely shocked and really angry that they have closed Victoria Primary. However, we will continue to fight and will start an appeal to the Scottish Government.’
Parents from Wyndford and St Gregory’s primaries told the LOCAL NEWS they felt ‘betrayed’ and had been ‘lied to’ by Labour councillors who did not get a totally free vote. They plan to keep on fighting by appealing to the Scottish Government.

INSIDE by Martin Graham
Voting cut and dried
Tension was high when Councillors voted. There was a large group of protesters corralled outside the City Chambers and a heavy police and security presence. Some of the parents took their seats in the public gallery as the Council session commenced. Councillor Jonathan Findlay, the Education convener, started by praising the work of Margaret Doran head of Education, and her staff in arranging the consultation process. He was quickly called on this by the SNP’s Patricia Gibson, who declared that it was ‘A sad day for democracy’, referring to the fact that Labour councillors had been instructed to vote in favour of proposals overall, but were only able to vote against closures in their own ward. Ms Gibson went on to say that the consultation was flawed and that many of the facts in the initial documents were incorrect, including buildings graded wrongly, a non-existent swimming pool at St Gregory’s and the complete omission of the autism unit at Ruchill Primary. The SNP’s Alex Dingwall paid tribute to the campaigners and made an impassioned plea in defence of St Agnes, Wyndford and St Gregory’s school. Lib Dem Christopher Mason stated that he supported the general proposal to reduce waste in the schools estate. However, he thought the approach was flawed because it was dictated from the top down rather than developed with support from the communities and elected officials.
As the voting started, it became clear that the Labour block vote was being wielded, with the vote on each proposal gaining the support of at least 40 councillors. As the decision on St Agnes was voted through, Diane Beat, whose child attends the school, made a distraught cry from the public gallery ‘There’s more than one button you can use’ before being escorted from the building. Labour councillors were asked to press button one on their voting consoles to confirm the closure of each nursery and school.
The outcome was a rubber stamp of the earlier Labour Group plan with only Ruchill Primary School and Shawbridge and Nithsdale nursery schools on the Southside, being saved from closure. Said Tory Councillor David Meikle, ‘While I’m pleased that Shawbridge and Nithsdale are to remain, I am disappointed the Labour group decided to rubber stamp almost all the other the proposals. Some need to be looked at again.’

APPEAL POSSIBILITIES
At least six parents have asked for a judicial review on the grounds that the consultation was not properly carried out. The Race Relations Act as amended in 2000 requires that any consultation processes should provide documents in a person’s own language when they cannot read in English. The parents contend this was not done properly and are seeking advice from an Advocate to determine whether they have grounds for appeal. MSP Anne McLaughlin of the Scottish National Party told the LOCAL NEWS: ‘We know that around 120 languages are spoken throughout Glasgow. We are not expecting the Council to provide the consultation documents in all these languages. However, I believe that in some areas where Urdu is a main language within the ethnic minority communities, the Council should have provided the documents in Urdu. We are in the process of checking out any appeal possibilities so it is still too early to predict what will happen.’ She added: ‘The parents have fought a good campaign and should be thanked for their hard work. The consultation is not fit for purpose and we will try to stop this.’ MSP Fiona Hyslop who is Cabinet Secretary for Education, has put a Bill before the Scottish Parliament which seeks to address some of the concerns about the consultation process for closing schools. If passed, the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Bill would require local authorities to hold at least 6 weeks consultation during term time among many conditions. The new Bill will also contain provision for Ministers to call in any decision where there have been failures in the consultation process. But this Bill will not be in time to save the Glasgow schools as it will only reach Stage 1 in September.

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Written by localnews · Filed Under Features, Glasgow East, Glasgow North, Glasgow South, Glasgow West, Local News, Top Stories 

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