Comhairle drops school review

Tong Primary School was just one that was to have been included in the proposed review.

The proposal could have netted the authority £130k in savings if progressed in its bid to secure savings of £6.6m over the next two financial years.

But initial public responses, along with the views of local councillors, persuaded the authority to remove the item from its considerations.

Proposing removal of the review of the schools from the list of proposals at a meeting of the Comhairle’s Policy and Resources Committee, Comhairle Leader, Cllr Roddie MacKay said: “In relation to the rationalisation of Tong, Laxdale and Sgoil a’ Bhac, again that is something for further down the line, and we have so much to do I don’t think it would be worthwhile starting a consultation or involving us in that particular issue at the minute.

“I think there are aspirations for a new resource there”, Cllr MacKay added, “but certainly there won’t be any time in this current program.”

The move was confirmed the meeting of the full council at the end of September, which also, following public feed-back, agreed to drop proposals on the reduction of support for voluntary sector nurseries, the reduction in grants to community organisations, the removal of community skips and the removal of the community grants scheme.

These proposals, if advanced, would have saved the authority £36k.

The leader of the Comhairle, Cllr Roddie MacKay, said during last week’s full council meeting that the decision to remove the proposal from consideration were “a broad reflection of the broad responses [received], and I think that’s fair enough, it’s a community-wide effect”.

But Cllr MacKay warned that the items had been removed from consideration: “with the caveat that should things get so difficult and challenging down the line we might revisit them”.

Alternative proposals to secure the savings ruled-out by dropping these plans will be considered by councillors at a budget seminar this month.

The Comhairle this week embarked on a new round of consultations with local communities on its budget and service plans and the remaining proposals for savings via a series of online events.