Turf war for new schools as Highland councillors admit capital plan is not affordable
Some Highland councillors representing Inverness said children are having to eat their lunch outside, prompting other councillors to speak up for their schools too.
Their words came as budget leader Derek Louden laid out the stark facts to a full council meeting yesterday: “What was affordable then is not affordable now, and won’t be affordable in the future.
“We have to tell our communities that we can’t deliver on everything we said we could deliver.”
Councillor Louden said there is detailed work under way to reassess the capital programme, which was agreed last December. This could mean the Highland Council can’t deliver all the new schools it had hoped.
A finance report explained to councillors that every single capital project is affected, with costs soaring by 20-40 per cent.
Cllr Louden said he initially looked at delaying projects, but council officers had made it clear there would need to be cuts too.
His words prompted the leader of the opposition Alasdair Christie to challenge the process.
“Collaboration isn’t saying: ‘Here’s the finished paper, what do you think?” said Councillor Christie.
“My residents don’t care about your comments that [the budget was set] was three chancellors ago. They care about their children and their schools, and whether they will spend their whole academic life in modular classrooms.”
Cllr Christie said some Inverness pupils are having to eat their lunch outside due to a lack of space in their school. His colleague Trish Robertson later reiterated the point, saying that Culloden Academy pupils are eating outside.
Turning directly to Cllr Louden, Cllr Christie asked: “Will you take Inverness schools out of the programme?”
His words set hares running in the Highland Council chamber, with members all chipping in for schools in their own ward.
Dingwall councillor Margaret Paterson reminded the Inverness members that they should think broader than the city. She asked members not to row back on commitments to St Clement’s School.
Councillor Maxine Smith observed: “Everyone will fight for their own area, and it won’t be easy to decide.”
She went on to ask the Highland Council to be ambitious, brave and commercial in its approach to new school builds. She repeated ideas she had raised in the last political term, that the council should explore the option of modular buildings to save costs.
“I’m not thinking in terms of cuts, I’m think how can we do it?” she said.
The council's economy committee chairman Ken Gowans urged members not to jump to assumptions about what’s in or out of the capital plan. “We need to take a measured view,” he said.
Its education committee chairman John Finlayson was in agreement.
“I’m ambitious for the capital programme but we have to look at every way possible to fund it,” he said. “We need to ensure out communities get their schools. Let’s stop point scoring and bring the ideas of all members together.”
