Cash not just for one Fife school

Sir, – I couldn’t help but wonder if Lesley Laird was speaking as an MP or a Fife councillor in her comments regarding an urgent replacement to Inverkeithing High School (“MP claims crumbling school needs replacing”, The Courier, April 7).

Whilst it is correct £50 million has been set aside in the capital plan to address the school estate in Fife, Mrs Laird is incorrect in saying “the cash is already there to build a new Inverkeithing High School”.

The cash is for replacement schools in Dunfermline and West Fife and Glenrothes, it is not exclusively set aside for a replacement Inverkeithing High School.

Inverkeithing will indeed be over capacity in three to four years, but that will only be if the

proposed new catchment and rezoning plans come to fruition.

This could, of course, all have been avoided if the previous Labour administration in Fife, of which Councillor Lesley Laird was deputy leader, had addressed rapid house building and population growth earlier, and recognised there would be a need to develop the school estate. Instead, following last year’s election, councillors were faced with hurried proposals which were quite rightly rejected.

Voters in Ward 6 will be wondering quite what is going on.

Cllr Laird, since being elected as an MP, has been absent from community meetings (and all but invisible in the ward) where no doubt concerns about school capacity and the estate have been discussed.

Given that education is a devolved matter, why is an MP getting involved in this debate or is she, confusingly, now speaking as a Fife councillor?

Cllr Kathleen Leslie. 2 Town House, Wemyssfield, Kirkcaldy.