Parents to keep up schools fight

There have been protests against the school closure plans

A group of parents has vowed to fight on after controversial council proposals to close or merge several Aberdeen primary schools were approved.

Families have fought a determined campaign to keep six primary schools and a nursery open.

Some cried following the vote at full council, which saw 23 councillors for the proposals and 14 against.

Aberdeen City Council said falling rolls meant the cost of maintaining buildings could no longer be justified.

It said it preferred to spend the money on educating pupils rather than on crumbling buildings.

The vote came after a four-hour debate on Wednesday night.

Causwayend, Victoria Road and Hilton Nursery were earmarked for closure earlier this year, along with the merger of four others - Byron Park and Westerton, and St Machar and Donbank.

One parent said campaigners were now considering legal action.

"We'll have to get lawyers involved now. We want resignations from the council. We're not going to stand by and let this happen," she said.

Another described the outcome as "very disappointing" and added that the council had refused to answer many questions put to them.

However, deputy leader of the SNP/Lib Dem-led council Kevin Stewart said the decision was taken with the best interests of pupils in mind.

'Best education'

He told BBC Scotland: "Quite frankly we have 30,000 school places and only 22,000 pupils - we cannot afford to pay for buildings when we should be paying for education.

"We have to ensure that there is a level playing field for all children and that we can provide the best education possible for them."

Labour leader Councillor Len Ironside accused the council of making a grave error.

He said: "It's an absolute slap in the teeth to the people of Aberdeen - minds were made up before this consultation was ever started."

And he argued that the surplus capacity in some schools could have been put to a wider community use.

"You could bring in the NHS or post offices that people are so worried about disappearing. But the council didn't want to hear anything other than what they'd made their minds up about two months ago - it's disgraceful."

Aberdeen Central Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald called on Scottish ministers to step in.

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