‘Blame game’ in school bid debate
The failure to secure funding for a new school project in Wishaw was discussed at a recent North Lanarkshire Council committee meeting.
Chairing the Education and Families committee on Tuesday, February 23, Councillor Frank Mcnally remarked that “the outcome of that has not been fruitful. It’s a very disappointing position to find ourselves in”.
Head of asset and procurement solutions, James Mckinstry, told the committee that the request for bids was sent out on September 15 with a submission date of October 13 and that the bid had been discussed at the previous Education and Families meeting on November 23.
The council was notified its bid had been unsuccessful on December 18. The feedback in this letter said that insufficient political commitment had been demonstrated and that the council had not specified exactly how the funding would be used.
The council was unable to specify which schools would benefit from this funding due to a commitment to consult locally before determining the exact location.
A year earlier a previous bid, to fund Chryston Primary School and Health Hub, was also rejected.
Council and Scottish Government officers have subsequently discussed the issues and it has been acknowledged that the council’s bid did have a number of strengths, and the Wishaw town hub would remain a live project for possible resubmission at a later date.
Depute leader of the council Paul Kelly also expressed his disappointment at the outcome.
“We have a model for the town hubs which we are delivering across North Lanarkshire. It’s recognised as a fantastic model so this is a really disappointing outcome for residents and young people in Wishaw and it’s completely unacceptable,” he said.
He added that more than six years had passed since the SNP Government last funded a school in North Lanarkshire, Cumbernauld Academy, and hit out at comments from Clare Adamson that the council’s bid was “incompetent” and “winging it”, and that the area’s new build schools were underperforming, as “shocking”.
He added: “We had cross-party support for this bid and recognition of the outstanding work our officers do across the board. We are the leading education authority in Scotland.
“I think it’s appalling that these comments saying poor performance by our new builds are directed by the convener of the education and skills committee at the Scottish Parliament.”
Councillor Kelly asked that the committee seek an apology from Mrs Adamson to pupils of those schools and to the council while also seeking to get the decision overturned.
Councillor Bob Burgess said: “I am extremely disappointed to note that Wishaw will not get the investment it needs and deserves” before asking for further explanation about what had happened.
Council leader Jim Logue said: “When the Scottish Government launched this programme we were all optimistic that recognition would be given to North Lanarkshire Council, the level of deprivation and the investment required in our schools.
“However clearly we were naively confident about that.
“There has been two tranches of funding given out and we have not received one penny. What is iniquitous and indefensible is that some medium to small authorities got funding for two, and one indeed got funding for three schools and yet not one penny to North Lanarkshire.
“That is an appalling statistic and I would have thought that all of us regardless of which party we were in would find that indefensible.”
Councillor Logue requested that the committee express its extreme disappointment in writing to Education Secretary John Swinney.
An amendment by Councillor Agnes Magowan called on the council to acknowledge its bid failed to comply with the criteria from the Scottish Government, it should have called a special committee meeting ahead of submission deadline to ratify the bid, consulted with the public and local schools, and should have been able to be specific about the location of the new hub and which schools would be involved.
Seconder Fiona Fotheringham stressed the amendment was not an attack on officers who warned the bid was incomplete, and regretted the failure had become a “blame game”.
She said that Councillor Kelly had not quoted Clare Adamson’s full statement which underlined her support for the project and her community and claimed Labour had asked her to “bend the rules” of parliament.
Councillor Jordan Linden added that he felt this was a display of “faux outrage” by Labour to discredit Mrs Adamson ahead of the May elections and highlighted the numerous schools the Scottish Government had contributed funding towards.
Councillors voted on whether to approve a motion to note the Scottish Government decision, return the town hub project to “unapproved” status and write a complaint to John Swinney or a composite SNP/ Conservative amendment to simply note the decision and prepare a revised bid for future submission. The amendment was carried by 19 votes to 18.