One in eight Aberdeenshire primary schools could close

An Aberdeenshire councillor is challenging his council to come clean on its school closure policy. Democratic Independent councillor Martin Ford, the Greens' top North-east list candidate for this May's Holyrood election, has highlighted figures that suggest Aberdeenshire Council is committed to closing up to twenty of its primary schools.

On 25 November last year, Liberal Democrat, Conservative and SNP Aberdeenshire councillors voted through a £2 million 'efficiency saving' from 'Primary School Rationalisation' as part of a package of budget cuts totalling £51.6 million over the financial years 2011/12 and 2012/13, with the saving from school closures being made in 2012/13. (Note 1)

On 9 December last year, a paper was presented at Aberdeenshire

Council's Education, Learning and Leisure Committee on 'Possible Rationalisation of School Estate', specifically the closure of Clatt Primary School and Logie Coldstone Primary School. (Note 2)

The detailed closure proposals identified full year savings on

operating costs of £82,663 from the closure of Logie Coldstone Primary School and £123,785 from the closure of Clatt Primary School. (Note 3)

On the basis of these two school closure proposals, the saving per

school closure is just over £100,000 per school. If this is the average saving from closing a small primary school in Aberdeenshire, then 20 schools would have to close to achieve the budget saving of £2 million that councillors voted through in November.

Some closures might save less money, in which case the

total number of closures would have to be higher to keep the Council on budget. Equally, it could be some closures would realise bigger savings, reducing the number of schools the Council will need to close to keep to budget.

Aberdeenshire Council currently has 151 primary schools, so if 20

schools were to close that would be more than one in eight of the primary schools run by the Council. This would represent a major change in schools policy.

Commenting, Councillor Martin Ford said: "Last November, Aberdeenshire

Council decided on far reaching budget cuts over the next two years without any consultation on where those cuts should be made.

"Many of the cuts were described in such general terms that the

detailed consequences of making them was unclear.

"Some of the cuts were effectively major changes in policy, made

without any public discussion or debate. It appears the Council's policy on its school estate was one such major change."

Cllr Ford has stressed that he is not arguing that no school should

ever close. "That is not a rational position," he said. "Populations change, educational requirements change and the school estate has to evolve to meet changing needs.

"Of course, when a school is proposed for closure, the Council is,

rightly, obliged to carry out a full consultation on the proposal. The Council has, over the years, closed a small number of schools.

"The issue is here is that the Council has effectively changed its

policy. There is now a requirement to close schools, and in some numbers. There has been no public consultation on that policy change nor any public statement that I am aware of that indicates the scale of closures needed to achieve the saving included in the 2012/13 budget.

"Many of the councillors who voted through the £27 million savings in

November are likely to have had no real idea of the implications of their vote.

"The SNP government's policy of cutting grant funding to councils

while freezing the Council Tax has left councils with no choice but to make large scale budget cuts. But where to make the savings involves choices and those choices over the next few years are too important to be decided in private meetings by the thirty-four councillors in the Council's ruling administration. There needs to be full public consultation about priorities to guide and influence what the Council decides to do.

"The scale of the cuts in spending and services over the next few

years will significantly alter what the Council does. We are not dealing with the normal yearly budget decisions here, but with major change and that needs a different approach.

"There are now a number of important questions for the Council: Will

the Council carry out a full public consultation on the savings proposed for its 2012/13 budget, and on alternatives to them, so that Aberdeenshire residents can identify the services they want retained and those they are prepared to see reduced? How many schools does the Council envisage closing to achieve the savings it has budgeted for? When will the Council be making public which schools it is proposing to close?"

Councillor Martin Ford is a member of Aberdeenshire Council's

Education, Learning and Leisure Committee.

ENDS

Contact: Martin Ford 01224 790052

Notes

1. See: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2026697

And the minute of the meeting is here:

http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees/files_meta/802572870061668E80257801004C826C/25.11.10%20ac.pdf

2. The paper is here:

http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees/files_meta/802572870061668E802577EB0037FC19/(05)%20Rationalisation%20of%20School%20Estate.pdf

3. The closure proposals are here:

http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees/files_meta/802572870061668E802577EB0037FC19/(05)%20Rationalisation%20of%20School%20Estate-App2.pdf