School closure is no ‘sacrifice’

Tory hits back in Blairingone row

A senior Conservative councillor has hit back at an elected member who criticised the council’s call to close Blairingone Primary School.

SNP councillor Richard Watters branded the closure of the Kinrossshire school as a “sacrifice” after it was agreed to start the process of closure at a meeting last week.

However, Blairgowrie and the Glens representative Cllr Bob Brawn accused Cllr Watters of being “incorrect” and “unnecessarily emotive” with his words.

He said: “As Cllr Watters said, the closure of Blairingone Primary School is regrettable to say the least, as it would be for any school. We lost the local school at Bridge of Cally, in my ward, some years ago. And for Blairingone - which has already lost its church, post office, inn and village hall - this will another blow which will make the cohesion of the village difficult to maintain.

“However, to say that the community is being sacrificed as part of a Tory/Lib Dem austerity driven agenda is incorrect and unnecessarily emotive in what is already a distressing situation and is just political point scoring.

“In any event, comments like this sound like they have come straight out of SNP central scripting.

“The cost of running this schoolcurrently a roll of five but is going to reduce to four in the next school year - has been quoted as being £85,000 which is tax payers’ money. Can any responsible administration justify that spend to maintain a running school for just four pupils?

“It cannot be good for the children who won’t get the experience of social interaction which is part of their learning and growing up.”

Cllr Brawn also said potential housing developments were “fraught with problems particularly as a result of old mine working”.

He added: “Even if they were to be built, this could take some years and we should bear in mind that most couples with young school age children more often than not choose to live close to urban areas.

“There is no guarantee that the school’s roll would increase.

“To be sure this is a sad situation with children having to go to another school after many happy days where they have been. It is a blow to the village itself. But this is not isolated to Blairingone - villages are suffering like this throughout Scotland and the UK.”