Sit-in protesters in meeting call

More than a dozen parents occupied the schools on Friday

Parents staging a sit-in at two closure-threatened Glasgow schools have refused to leave until they meet with the leader of the city council.

More than a dozen people occupied Wyndford Primary and St Gregory's Primary in Maryhill on Friday.

Both could be closed in a savings drive to shut or merge 13 primary schools and 12 nurseries across the city.

Glasgow City Council said Councillor Stephen Purcell had no plans to meet with the protesters.

Nikki Rathmill, one of the parents involved in the sit-in, told BBC Radio Scotland that the protesters would not leave until they had spoken to Mr Purcell.

"I understand that some schools need to be closed but our kids will have to be sent to a school that is 1.4 miles away," she said.

"The building and educational standards here are better than the school they are being sent to and class sizes are going to have to rise."

Consultation held

She added: "If you have a class with 20 pupils and you add another 20 pupils, that will definitely affect the children's education."

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "We have already gone to great lengths to explain why we are putting these proposals forward.

"We held a six-week consultation period during which we organised 46 public meetings, including four separate meetings for parents at the schools involved in this protest.

"We received more than 8,000 formal responses to the consultation. These are currently being collated and councillors will receive a comprehensive report before they make any decisions on these proposals at a meeting of the council on 23 April."

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