Chiefs ‘not moving fast enough’ to fix blunder
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Education bosses have been lambasted for showing a “lack of urgency” in addressing capacity issues at Dargavel Primary School.
Renfrewshire Council said it would look at options to fix problems at the Bishopton school built last year with an intended maximum school roll of 548 pupils.
Analysis shows space could be needed for as many as 1,100 in the near future.
But the Express has learned the local authority has not yet approached the Scottish Government for funding to address the capacity blunder, expected to cost up to £20million to fix.
The failure to approach the Scottish Government was revealed in a meeting held last week by Neil Bibby MSP, chairman of Dargavel Primary Parent Council Alan Kelly and Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Sommerville.
At the meeting on Thursday Ms Sommerville confirmed Renfrewshire Council had not submitted any applications to its learning estate investment programme despite having reportedly known about the issue since June.
Mr Kelly told the Express that while he recognised the council was working to resolve the problems, he said it was “not moving fast enough. In the meeting Ms Sommerville echoed our feelings that this is an unbelievable mistake,” he said.
“She stated that any request for funding support received from Renfrewshire Council would impact existing planned capital projects and expressed serious concern about the performance of Renfrewshire Council in this matter.
“The Education Secretary also mentioned that there was a funding opportunity, called LEIP Phase 3, which was calling for applications in the Summer.
“Noting that Renfrewshire Council have admitted becoming aware of the roll issue in June 2022 it seems another failure that they didn’t submit any application to this fund, which has now closed.”
The Education Secretary agreed to meet with parents of Dargavel Primary School after Neil Bibby MSP asked deputy first minister John Swinney to listen to their concerns firsthand.
Mr Bibby, Labour MSP for West Scotland, said: “I am pleased Alan was able to represent the Dargavel parents and share their experiences with the Scottish Government. The minister admitted she has never seen anything like it and neither have I. Unfortunately, we learned Renfrewshire Council has made no representations to their SNP colleagues at Holyrood for the extra funding needed to sort this farce out.
“I find the lack of urgency in resolving this disrespectful to this community.”
He added: “These parents have been let down by gross incompetence.”
The meeting was held one day before Russel Findlay MSP challenged the Communities Minister Ben Macpherson to intervene.
The Scottish Conservative MSP for West Scotland said: “The local government minister told me he can’t meddle in council business, but in extreme circumstances like this, it would be right to do so. Parents are disappointed and angry and expect the Scottish Government to share their interest in working out what went so badly wrong.”
A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said that while a larger than expected number of children enrolled at Dargavel in June, the scale of the problem only became apparent in October when parents were notified.
Explaining the immediate priority is to increase capacity for the next school year and identify a longerterm solution, he said: “We have done significant work to identify a revised roll projection for future years.
“To help us verify this, an external company, Edge Analytics, have now been appointed to undertake their own projection of expected pupil numbers over the life of the Dargavel Village development. The results will be used to plan how best to expand school capacity.
“Clearly, that work needs to be completed before the exact funding requirements and arrangements can be agreed.”