By Scott Watson

ARBIRLOT PRIMARY School was saved from the axe last night when Angus Council’s education committee voted to keep it open.

Around 40 jubilant parents who packed the council chamber broke into applause as the decision was announced.

Parents have been campaigning to keep the 34-pupil school open since December, 2004, when it emerged the council had plans to close it, saying there was no money to bring the building up to an acceptable standard.

At last night’s meeting councillors agreed to go ahead with minor improvements to the school building, costing around £48,000, to satisfy inspectors.

There were two other options on the table. One was to start a formal consultation on school closure, with Arbirlot’s catchment being added to that of Muirfield Primary School.

The other option was to spend up to £600,000 on re-building.

Leader of the council Rob Murray told the meeting the council had carried out a consultation to see whether there was still a need for a school in Arbirlot, and the process had showed there was.

He said as long as parents and teachers could show there was a need for a school in the community, the council would provide one, but it would have to prove its viability.

“There is a need for a school, and that is the direction we are taking today,” he said.

“Having said that, the school will have to fight for its money alongside other small rural schools like Eassie and all the other rural schools in Angus.

“We are doing the best we can for small rural schools, that’s why we have spent £70 million on upgrades. Careful consideration will be given to every one of our rural primary schools.”

Councillor Glennis Middleton supported keeping Arbirlot open, but said the council had a duty to keep an eye on shifting population sizes in rural communities to make sure small schools were still viable.

“We have to react to the population that exists around rural schools. One of the problems is we have many rural schools a few miles apart and pupil numbers have declined as the rural population has declined.”

Councillor Middleton added, “We can’t say that any school will be safe for the next 30 years. What we are doing is trying to react to the circumstances at any given time. We have not been prone to school closures in Angus and we are doing our best in a very difficult time.”

Councillor Alex King said it was now up to parents to prove the council had made the right decision by continuing to send their children to Arbirlot.

Another member of the committee, Peter Nield, said he welcomed the move to keep the school open but warned that Angus Council needed a proper strategy to deal with the future of small rural schools.

He said the decision would not ensure the future of Arbirlot or any other small school in Angus.

“We need to stop the sword of Damocles hanging over every rural school, every year,” he told the meeting.

“It’s not fair, and it does nothing to help bring people to live in rural Angus. People will go to live where the future schooling of their children is assured.

“This council is charged by the Scottish Executive to take the long view. I ask that we formulate a rural schools strategy that takes a long view. The parents I speak to want something more concrete.”

After the decision was made, delighted Arbirlot parent and campaign leader Sandy Longmuir said he was now confident the school had a long-term future.

“This is a great result for us,” he said. “A lot of the councillors at the meeting said there was a long-term future for the school, and that was exactly what we wanted to hear from them.

“The leader of the council stood up and said we now go back into the pot with all the other Angus schools to fight for funding, and we feel that gives the school a great chance.

“This goes a long way towards what we were campaigning for. We have never asked for a total rebuild—we just asked for a commitment to its future.

“When this all started we didn’t consider we had a school that was falling down. Some things just needed upgrading.”

Mr Longmuir said there were times during the long campaign that he and the other parents thought they were fighting a losing battle.

“Maybe at times last year we thought we were up against it,” he said. “It takes a while to get your ideas over to councillors who are used to going along with whatever their paid officials recommend in reports.

“It’s taken us time and a lot of reasoned argument to get our ideas over to the councillors. Even tonight, the report they had in front of them leaned towards closure, but the members went against that. We have never ranted and raved. We put a lot of time into getting them to understand our point of view.

“I don’t think we will be back here in three or four years’ time trying to save the school again. I’m very optimistic about the future.

“You could see by the reaction of parents in the council chamber just what this means to them.

“The children are all back at the school being looked after by the head teacher. We can’t wait to get back there and tell them the good news.”