FEARS are growing that decisions have already been made about which schools in East Dunbartonshire are set to close or to merge — despite a council "consultation" on the issue.
As reported in last week's Herald, opposition councillors are furious there was no consultation with them before the administration hired an outside agency to devise and send out a questionnaire on the future of primary, nursery and special schools i
n the district.
Anger was compounded when, at last week's meeting of the education committee, convener Councillor Una Walker refused to allow debate on the matter.
Independent Alliance Councillor Charles Kennedy has already called the consultation a sham and that decisions have already been taken behind closed doors and that belief is growing momentum.
Baldernock parent Jan Patience told the Herald: "There is serious concern among parents here that the whole survey is such a rushed exercise it leaves us with the view that any future school closures were a fait accompli on the drawing board prior to this consultation."
Bearsden lecturer Paul Brownsey has similar suspicions and says the questionnaire is riddled with specialist jargon, adding: "It appears as though the phrasing in the questionnaire is deliberately obscure. The council will claim they had a full public consultation but that's not the case when questions are such that they can barely be understood."
Some examples of the obscurity of the questions are flagged up by Mr Brownsey on our letters page this week including what people think about "provision of flexible space to support multi-agency working."
The tight time scale of less than two weeks being allowed for responses has also been widely criticised and this week MP Jo Swinson called on the council to extend it.
She said: "On an issue as important as this one, the council ought to allow more time for people to submit their views and I am asking them to extend the consultation period by at least two weeks."
However, council leader Rhondda Geekie is sticking by her statement made last week that the time scale is adequate and reiterated her earlier confirmation that no decisions have yet been made on school closures.
Residents in the Baldernock area and some other pockets in the district didn't get their questionnaires and were told by the council there had been a data fault with the agency handling the consultation and for those residents the time scale of Friday, October 9, has been extended until October 20.
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