I have some sympathy for Edinburgh Council even though it will come in for a fair bit of stick over its proposals to close some 16 schools. But if there are not enough children to fill the schools, what can the Council do? Here are three points which neither The Scotsman this morning or The Evening News this afternoon appears to have considered.
1. The proposals will be subject to consultation. I would not put it past the Council to have announced a worst case scenario from which they may gradually row back over the months ahead. It would be invidious to play politics with children's schooling but in circumstances where any school closure would be the subject of enormous criticism it would be understandable - if less than excusable.
2. Look at the map of the proposed closures, conveniently provided by The Scotsman. Some of those sites will be worth a fortune. Yet the capital value of the saleable properties is said to amount to about £16 million. I would have thought that the sale of just three primary schools - Abbeyhill, Stockbridge and Drumbrae (with Drumbrae's associated land) with the appropriate planning consents would comfortably exceed that figure.
3. Edinburgh is signposting the way ahead for local authorities all over the country. Sooner or later, the rest of them are going to have to bite the same bullet. And if you don't believe me, you only have to look at the figures quoted here.
1 comment:
Good post.
It seems if you dig behind the headlines as you have then it's probably a fair enough move.
Not sure about £16m for a few schools though. Maybe if Abramovich was moving into the Edinburgh Property Market perhaps.... ;)
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