Parents' fury at council over 'Oliver Twist' school

SPECIAL needs children caught up in a funding wrangle over new premises to replace their dilapidated school have been "shamefully" neglected by those in a position to help them.

Amidst bickering amongst politicians over how a replacement for St Clement’s in Dingwall — declared not fit for purpose by the Scottish Government’s children’s minister — can be funded, parents of children facing another winter in "disgracefully inadequate" facilities say they’ve been badly let down despite promises of progress.

Dingwall and Seaforth ward councillor Angela MacLean has invited Holyrood children’s minister Maree Todd and the area’s MSP, Kate Forbes, to support a push for funding for a replacement.

The SNP MSPs have laid the blame at the door of education authority Highland Council for failing to prioritise the school in its budgeting decisions. Highland Council blames a reduced capital budget and has lobbied the Scottish Government for extra to push forward new builds.

Campaigner Christyna Ferguson, whose daughter attends the school, told the North Star the parent council "has had no support or communication" from local councillors since February and that Highland Council "has had decades to provide a fit-for-purpose school for our children".

She said: "Meanwhile our children are subject to appalling conditions. Only today my daughter had to sit in her classroom with her coat and hat on as it was so cold — a ‘classroom’ which incorporates the staff toilet and staff room.

"To avoid the staff room, children are having to go in and out of the classroom via outdoors."

Dingwall-based MSP Kate Forbes previously described the school "as like something out of Oliver Twist". The school has a roll of 25 pupils, many suffering from severe disabilities.

Last week, councillor Angela MacLean invited MSPs Forbes and Maree Todd, who both sit in cabinet, to a meeting in a bid to find a way to replace the school by locating a new site and finding the funding.

Councillor MacLean said: "I think that the school itself, the staff, all do a fantastic job and I think it is incumbent on us to try and get a solution and all work together.

"Having it on the capital programme with a reduced capital budget has been difficult but everyone who has seen it knows it is badly needing replaced.

"Whether it be Scottish Government or Highland Council we all have to work together and given the children that go to St Clement’s it does make it more urgent because they are our most vulnerable young people."

Mrs Todd said she’d be "more than happy" to meet local councillors but added: "As a member of the ruling administration, Ms MacLean will know that St Clement’s had not previously been prioritised by Highland Council in their capital spending plans.

"Since my visit to St Clement’s earlier this year Highland Council have now prioritised it. Should they require my support in making further progress, I am happy to help."

Miss Forbes noted that "Highland Council’s plans for school buildings seem to be entirely reliant on additional Scottish Government funding, when it is the council who has statutory responsibility for school buildings and their annual budget settlement recognises that".

She said: "Highland Council has been the second highest beneficiary of the Scottish Government’s Schools for the Future funding scheme, receiving £63 million.

"The Deputy First Minister has committed to announcing the next school buildings funding programme by the end of the year."

Renewing an appeal for progress, Christyna Ferguson warned of "promises broken and deadlines long passed" and accused the council of breaking the law over conditions. She said: "Our children face another winter in cold classrooms having to go out in all weathers to access already disgracefully inadequate facilities — it’s shameful."

She sees "no grounds for hope on a breakthrough, just empty misleading diversion".

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