Highland Council to tighten rules on school lets
Stricter rules for letting out Highland schools will come into force after a failed bid to put the new policy on ice.
Outwith classtime, school buildings in the region are often used for public meetings, sports, exhibitions or entertainment.
However, the current letting arrangements were criticised as "ad-hoc and confusing" by education bosses.
Highland councillors have voted by 14 votes to 6 in favour of introducing a standardised letting system after opposition member Michael Green demanded a "pause-and-review" so local concerns could be addressed in the wake of criticism of the tighter rules.
Officials found that some individuals and groups had historical arrangements in place with schools for free lets and others were not being charged when they should have been.
The education department also found there was supposedly no "letting activity" taking place in 60 per cent of primary schools, despite it being known they were being used on a regular basis by community groups, organisations or individuals.
The recording of lets was also criticised because it was often unclear whether the school or third party had liability for issues like child protection, insurance and health and safety.
But from April onwards school lets will be the responsibility of the head teacher and hires will based on a standardised charging policy and tariff, which has technically been in place since 2009.
Adult and children’s services committee chairman Alasdair Christie said school lets were currently a "postcode lottery" because some groups were being charged and others were paying nothing.
"We have the situation at the moment where a sports group in Badenoch and Strathspey has got a hire for free and somebody in Nairn has to pay for it," said Councillor Christie.
He added that tightening up the rules was important because semi-commercial organisations have hired schools as venues.
The council concluded last year that school letting was "highly subsidised" and cost about £250,000 a year to provide.
But senior opposition councillor Margaret Davidson criticised the new policy and predicted the SNP/Liberal Democrat/Labour administration was about to "upset half of the Highlands".
She said the region would not take kindly to standardised rules and pointed out vast differences in the set-ups at city secondary schools and small rural primaries and accused the coalition of trying to exert too much power.
"It seems a character trait we have under ‘severe control’," said the Independent councillor, who urged the leadership to leave the current practices alone.
Sutherland Lib Dem councillor Linda Munro said the new policy had sparked "unintended consequences" around a school’s hires in her ward but one community was no more deserving than another and supported the rules.
Councillor Green tabled an unsuccessful motion seeking a delay so a cross-party councillor group could investigate the issue.
