Four EK schools could face closure as part of 2011/12 council cuts

Feb 17 2010 by Shona Mitchell, East Kilbride News

FOUR schools in the East Kilbride and Strathaven area could face closure as part of the 2011/12 round of council cuts.

At Thursday’s full council meeting, Council Leader Eddie McAvoy said that, despite managing to save frontline services and maintain the council’s existing capital projects in the first round of budget cuts, capital programmes may need to be slashed in next year’s budget.

The cuts could see the council’s flagship Schools’ Modernisation Programme being postponed.

With savings of £17.5 million being made in 2010/11, Councillor McAvoy warned he expected savings of £30 million to be made in 2011/12, and that could see the schools’ programme, as well as roads investment, being hit.

With the council already looking at the budget for 2011/12, he warned, “a lot of hard choices will have to be made.”

He said: “There is no doubt that, for the first time, we will have to look at capital programmes.

“In my opinion, the biggest question we face is ‘can we continue with the primary school modernisations and roads investment’?”

Mr McAvoy said the council had given a commitment to keep all primary schools open, but that 17 schools currently had less than 50 pupils each, while the roads investment was dependant on the sale of land in East Kilbride, Rutherglen and Hamilton town centres.

Auldhouse, Chapelton, Gilmourton and Sandford Primaries each have fewer than 50 pupils and a total of just 157 among them.

He said the council would need to borrow £125 million next year for capital programmes.

Afterwards, Councillor McAvoy explained his position: “The situation is based on studies from our own finance department that says we should expect to find savings of £30 million next year, no matter who wins the General Election.

“We've never looked at capital programmes before but people don't realise that we fund them by borrowing money and that money needs to be paid back.

“In terms of the Schools’ Modernisation Programme, we are paying back £71 million and we still have over 80 schools to be re-built or refurbished.

“As I said at the meeting, we have 17 schools with a total catchment area of just 390 pupils. The programme is not under threat but what the council does need to decide is whether we can keep our commitment to keep all our schools open.

“If that is the case, then I don't think we have the finances to continue building schools at this rate, unless we find a cheaper way of doing it.

“If that is the case we may be forced to delay the entire plan or postpone work for a time.

“It's the same with the roads programme. That was based on the sale of parts of the town centres in East Kilbride, Hamilton and Rutherglen. The sale of these would have brought in £36 million but with the current financial situation it is unlikely we are going to sell the town centres anytime soon and the programme still has six years to run.

“In simple terms, the situation for 2011/12 is going to be very severe and the £17.5 million cuts we have had to make this year will be nothing compared to what we will face next year.

“In terms of roads investment and schools, we can't continue spending money the way we are now.”

Councillor McAvoy added that he was pleased this year’s budget had been passed: “We managed to get it through without cutting frontline services but the same issues will come up again next year, only this time it will be savings of £30 million, so councillors are going to have some difficult decisions to make.”