MSP says Council must redo their sums on Crossroads Primary
1 MarchCathy Jamieson MSP says:
I have called on East Ayrshire Council to redo the financial calculations they used to justify the proposal to close Crossroads Primary, after hearing from the Scottish Rural Schools Network at the recent consultation meeting. I wanted to hear what the Council had to say about the proposal to close the school, and listen to all sides of the argument. However, having seen the paper from the Council and the challenge to the figures made by Sandy Longmuir of SRSN, I have come to the view that the calculations must be redone. The argument put by SRSN is that far from saving revenue costs by closing Crossroads, the Council would lose out on additional funding.
Sandy Longmuir and his colleagues in SRSN are well respected for having highlighted inaccuracies in other Councils' proposals, and their work has been acknowledged by Audit Scotland. They also highlighted disparities in the plan for teacher numbers in a merged school. Parents need to have confidence that the figures put forward by East Ayrshire Council are robust, and at the moment that is certainly not the case. My constituents want to see the Council look again at the figures and amend the consultation report.
I know that many parents were also upset that the consultation document suggests that there is no established community served by Crossroads. That seems to be a very narrow definition of community - just because there is not a built up area does not mean that local families and businesses are not affected, as the document implies. By its nature, a rural community is different, and I hope that the Council will recognise the scale of agricultural businesses in the area, and the contribution they make to our local economy, not to mention putting food on our plates!
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