Campaigners hoping to save a condemned Dundee school have said government inspectors “raised more questions than answers” in their report into the closure.
The Rev Bob Mallinson, who chairs the Save Menzieshill High School Campaign, said the council had failed to properly respond to the issues raised in the Education Scotland report.
Dundee City Council recently released a document calling for the school’s closure after the Government report suggested shutting Menzieshill High’s doors would bring “educational benefits”.
But Mr Mallinson said the battle to save the school the closure of which would come at “huge cost to the community” was far from over.
At a meeting to decide the next steps of the campaign, the minister said: “Many questions from the (Education Scotland) report remain unanswered by the council.
“The council simply lists the community issues raised in the Education Scotland report and then moves on without answering them.
“This is not acceptable. The council have to decide when dealing with a community like Menzieshill if they want to allow poverty to grow or if they want to properly oppose austerity.
“What little they save in the budget will come at a huge cost to the community.”
Mr Mallinson went on: “This is about being positive and being fair, 2,500 people have signed a petition calling for the school not to be closed.
“They (the council) claim to listen well, listen to the community.”
Alongside a dozen members of the public, as well as Labour group education spokesman Laurie Bidwell and former Dundee West parliamentary candidate Michael Marra, Mr Mallinson said the campaign had a number of initiatives to undertake before the school’s fate is decided on June 22.
He said: “We are not going away. We have been undertaking our own community consultation and already have 200 responses.
“We plan to release these before the meeting, as well as speak at the meeting so we can tell councillors why we oppose the closure.
“There’s no majority on the education committee (who will decide the closure) so it is not over yet.”