Opposition councillors in Fife have been challenged to present an alternative solution to the region’s school estate problems.
Councillor Bryan Poole, the local authority’s executive spokesperson for education, has hit out at critics of the council’s school closure programme, claiming some comments have been “unfair”.
It comes following a meeting of the region’s education scrutiny committee last week where SNP councillor Douglas Chapman argued he could not comprehend the reasons for closing Crombie Primary.
He claimed closure of the village school would make little in the way of financial savings, the purpose behind the council’s closure plans for a number of schools in the region.
However, responding to Mr Chapman’s comments, Mr Poole told The Courier: “I would like to send this message to Douglas and his colleagues in the SNP group.
“If you have alternative proposals which you feel are better then please bring them forward I would be very happy to give them serious consideration.
“However Douglas’s and the SNP group’s current approach to this issue is neither acceptable nor sustainable.
“It is simply unfair to communities, parents and pupils to be saying there are better options around reducing the school capacity challenges without giving any indication of what they have in mind.”
The Labour-led administration in Fife launched its review of the region’s school estate with a survey concluding there were more than 11,000 surplus places in primary schools.
As a consequence, seven primary schools Rathillet, New Gilston, Dunino, Tanshall, Wellwood, Pitcorthie and Crombie have either been closed or face closure.
At a meeting of Fife Council’s scrutiny committee, Mr Chapman said in reference to plans to close Crombie Primary: “For the life of me, I cannot see why Fife Council is closing this school. It does not make a lot of sense to me.
“Other schools would have made a bigger impact in making savings, which is the point of this exercise in the first place.”
An observer at meeting, Mr Poole added: “Whilst Douglas has seen the need to reduce the capacity in our schools for some time, unfortunately his colleagues in the Fife SNP group do not seem to agree with him, given they have opposed all the closure proposals with the exception of one.”