School: Parents fight council over closure
A group of parents have staged a sit-in at a threatened school in wake of a series of controversial closures by councils across Scotland.
Five protesters are refusing to leave St Matthew's Primary School in Wishaw, as North Lanarkshire Council decides the fate of four others.
The protest is one of a number staged by campaigners in Scotland in the last year as local authorities, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, were faced with falling rolls and tighter budgets.
Glasgow City Council announced the closure of 11 primary and nine nursery schools last year while Edinburgh councillors shut the door on four primaries.
Last year North Lanarkshire Council approved budget cuts of £15million.
The local authority announced a public consultation on the school closures - which ends on Friday - blaming a fall in school rolls and expensive building repair costs as the reasons behind the plans.
As an alternative children at the Catholic school, which lies in the shadow of Ravenscraig, would be relocated to two others, St Brendan's or St Thomas.
The council is also proposing to close Gartsherrie in Coatbridge, Belvidere in Bellshill and St Francis of Assisi, Cumbernauld.
Four parents and a grandmother began the protest just after 3pm on Thursday when pupils left the building for the day and took resident in a parents' room.
In the evening two education officials arrived at the school, as hundreds of other campaigners gathered outside in support.
Christine McGeechan, who has two grandchildren at the school, joined the protest along with her daughter Helen Lamb.
She said "This isn't just about saving a school, it's about saving a community. This is a deprived area and our kids love this school. The other ones are too far away.
"We needed to do something at the end of the consultation because we want to save the school. We want councillors to know that we will not see it close. We voted them in, they have to listen to us."
The campaigners said they were prepared to remain at the school until next week but decided to leave on Friday to prevent any disruption to the children.
Grandmother Marie Farrell, who attended the school herself as a child, along with her seven children, said the closure of the school will "rip the heart out of the community".
She said the whole community are behind the protesters.
Mrs Farrell said: "We've had a Catholic school in this community for 110 years. It is the heart of Craigneuk and closing the school will just rip the heart out of the community.
"The council say it would cost too much to upgrade the building but a recent HMI report said it was in good repair. And they are planning on building new homes on the site of old Ravenscraig. So they can boost the capacity of the school then."
Mrs Farrell said children were now faced with travelling much further, across busy roads, as an alternative.
She said: "There is such a strong feeling in the community about this issue. Residents handed in 2,000 letters of protest to the council over the plans."
North Lanarkshire Council has defended the proposals saying the school is well under-capacity with only 100 out of a possible 308 pupils attending the school, which is based between the communities of Craigneuk and Wishawhill.
They said there are a total of 700 empty spaces at schools in Wishaw.
A council spokesman said: “A number of parents have occupied the school premises. We are arranging to meet the parents to discuss their actions with a view to resolving the situation.
“Following this meeting, we will then determine the next course of action.
“Meanwhile it should be stressed that the proposals to close St Matthew’s Primary School have been subject to extensive consultation and will be a matter for the council’s Learning and Leisure Services Committee to decide in the near future.”
The council also said they were following tighter public consultation procedures than other councils, using the Scottish Government's draft plans, which includes putting the report in the public domain for longer.
