‘Croftamie closure is unlawful’ claim aired Councillors’plea to Scottish Ministers on cut
Community councillors are asking Scottish Ministers to call in a decision by Stirling Council to close Croftamie Nursery, claiming the process was unlawful.
The council’s children and young people committee decided by eight votes to three last Thursday that the facility should shut its doors, with only the Conservatives voting to keep it open.
The move came just three months after members narrowly refused to give the nursery the axe after local member for Forth and Endrick, Tory councillor Alistair Berrill, had urged the committee to instead bring back a fully costed study of improvement options for the existing building.
Croftamie Community Council, however, is now arguing that last week’s decision contravened the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.
The act states that, once the Education Authority publishes a closure proposal, if a decision is made not to implement that, a further closure proposal in relation to the same establishment may not be published for five years.
The community council’s believes as the committee voted in September not to implement closure, they should not have included the option in last week’s report.
Writing to Ministers this week, Croftamie Community Council chair Peter Lloyd urged them to “call in” the closure decision.
He added: “Croftamie Nursery is a successful, award winning and thriving establishment which sits at the heart of the rural village. We believe the process to ensure closure of the nursery was flawed and biased from day one.
“Our understanding is that the act is in place to ensure consultations, regarding school closures etc are conducted in a transparent and ethical manner and in accordance with a clear, agreed process.”
Should Ministers consider there had been no contravention, the community council further argues that the second proposal contained assessments and valuations that “varied significantly” from those evidenced in the first proposal.
Mr Lloyd added: “Given the dramatic changes, these cannot simply be considered as re-assessments.”
He said the Act also presumed against closure of rural schools and the authority had failed to also take into account the implication on the wider rural community.
He added: “As a community council we are deeply concerned about many aspects of the ‘consultation’, engagement with the local community and the manner in which the whole process has been dealt with by Stirling Council. The closure of the nursery would be a devastating blow to Croftamie village and its community.”
Following the community council’s decision to write to Scottish Ministers, Councillor Berrill said: “I am not surprised at all that the people of Croftamie are furious over this decision.
He added: From the very beginning of the consultation local people were sceptical about whether the process would be open and transparent. “The arguments provided to the committee were entirely one-sided, all leading to one predetermined conclusion, which was closure.”
Stirling Council declined to comment.
We are deeply concerned about many aspects of the ‘consultation’