Councillor 'sets record straight' over schools plan
Councillor Bill Fernie, chairman of the Highland Council's education, culture and sport committee, has written to the Northern Times to "set the record straight" on the NT story “Under the radar plan for East Sutherland superschool”.
He says: "The information that featured in the article was obtained from an email sent by Martin Finnigan, Caledonian Economics Limited to Ron MacKenzie, Head of Support Services, dated 13 December 2010. This email, one of many, was provided in response to a Freedom of Information request. This rather contradicts the assertion in your article that the email was 'leaked'. On the contrary it was provided in good faith to an enquirer and therefore was fully available in the public domain.
"The Council has nothing to hide in relation to the on-going Sustainable School Estate Review and at each stage in the review process there will be full engagement with local communities before any proposals are formulated for statutory consultation.
"The first phase of the review in Caithness is on-going with initial proposals for statutory consultations in relation to future Primary School education in Wick being considered by the ECS Committee this week. The preparatory work for phase two of the review is on-going within the 3 Associated School Groupings (ASG) in Easter Ross (Invergordon, Alness and Tain). It is anticipated that proposals for statutory consultation will be submitted to the ECS Committee for consideration during summer 2012. in the intervening period there will be engagement with the local communities in order to inform these proposals.
"No timeframe has been agreed for the review of East Sutherland ASGs. Given the Scottish Government’s decision to place a moratorium on any review of rural school provision, any review is likely to be some distance away. So the release of this dated information at this time is disappointing as all it serves to do is unnecessarily unsettle people.
"I can assure your readers that when we get round to reviewing school provision in East Sutherland, we will look at all the options and consult widely before reaching decisions.
"The Sustainable School Estate Review is about improving learning and teaching opportunities for the maximum number of pupils in Highland for generations to come by providing the appropriate community school facilities."
The NT had tried to contact Mr Fernie prior to printing the story, leaving a message on his mobile phone, but he did not return the call.