SNP finally agree to keep
a primary school in Kilbirnie
North Ayrshire SNP has been
pressured into allowing Moorpark Primary School to remain in Kilbirnie,
following extensive public outcry from parents in Kilbirnie and Beith, The
original proposal was to include Moorpark and Glengarnock Primary Schools in
the new Garnock Academy Campus at North Lochshore. But the SNP’s decision
to go against local wishes and move the Campus to Longbar put the whole scheme
in doubt.
Parents had already made
their views clear with a petition of over 2500 signatures opposing the site
change for the new Garnock campus. When the SNP refused to listen to their
views, the local community again stated their concerns over travel distances
and the safety of routes to the SNP’s remote and isolated Longbar site.
The
committee heard the results of the consultation with parents which made clear
that any benefits of being part of the new Campus were heavily outweighed by
the difficulties posed by the remote isolated Longbar site. The parents voted
overwhelmingly to keep Moorpark out of the Garnock project if it was to go
ahead so far from the town.
John Bell, Labour Councillor for the
Garnock Valley, said:
"This is a victory for the Moorpark
Primary parents and the community who have successfully forced the
administration to concede that the Longbar site is too far from the community.
However there are still concerns for the secondary pupils of both Kilbirnie and
Beith in travelling to the remote and isolated site. Users of the Garnock pool
will also find difficulty in accessing the new facility if it is at Longbar.
"This should have been a major
opportunity for the Garnock valley but the project has been diminished by the
poor choice of site. No matter how
good the new facilities might be, they are inaccessible for the majority of the
community.
“The administration believes that positioning the
Camous between Kilbirnie and Beith the SNP will allow them to cut school buses
from Beith while being positioned so that Kilbirnie pupils will not qualify for
free transport either. It’s no more than a scam to cut costs while increasing
the difficulty and the danger for our pupils.”
“Even at this late stage I call on the the
administration to see sense and revert to the more central Kilbirnie site which
was within safe walking distance for Kilbirnie pupils and kept free transport
for Beith and Dalry pupils”.
