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Nursery places face financial axe

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Published Date: 29 August 2007
CLOSING nursery schools will not be enough to ease Edinburgh City Council's financial shortfall, it emerged yesterday.
Speaking at the council's education committee, the children and families director, Gillian Tee, revealed the number of full-time nursery places would have to fall to meet the target of saving nearly £1.8 million from the early years sector.

Meanwhile the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, visited a school in his constituency threatened by plans to close 22 schools, to save £9 million over three years.

The MP for Edinburgh South West urged pupils and parents to fight for the school.

He told the children: "Never be afraid to stand up and say what you think, because sometimes you are right."

He added: "This school is very popular; it is nearly full, and parents feel if there are changes proposed, they have to come up with a good educational reason - and I have not seen any.

"My constituents would question it if I didn't speak up for them."

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1

Edward,

29/08/2007 01:25:59

'This school is very popular; it is nearly full'
or is it nearly empty??
Sounds a bit like the optimist and the pesamist
the glass is half full or the glass is half empty, a bit like Alistair Darling, its a pity he ignored his constituents last year when closures were threatened by the Labour council

2

Witty Nom de plume,

Drummond Community High School 29/08/2007 07:13:02

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/drummond/

3

,

29/08/2007 07:23:04
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason: Scotsman Import, Original comment id: 915170, Article id was mapped to record!
4

Daibhidh,

29/08/2007 07:52:12

Em, weren't these closures Labour policy and the Libs/SNP have only inhereted it?!?!?!

And what's Darling the donkey on about? He's an MP, he has no control or influence over the schools...get back to the gravy train in westminster where you belong...

5

eddylongshanks,

york 29/08/2007 07:55:42

sorry Billy, you can keep him, he's slithered back to his home country and constituency

6

Elvis G,

Edinburgh 29/08/2007 08:16:49

Benthehoose No 2 "Send a strong message to Westminster by voting SNP at the next general election"-and get a Tory UK Government? Get real. and Billy No 4 your comments brand yourself effectively as a racist.

7

Non political,

Stockbridge Primary (full) 29/08/2007 09:22:52

Not keen on darling (the eyebrows/hair thing, a bit too Jim Henson for my liking) however, good for him defending decent schools.

You realistically can't attack him for it and more to the point he WILL win votes for this from the SNP up here.

Parents are not terribly forgiving when you try to screw up their kids futures, and why should they be?

Even if I wasn't on the receiving end of this nonsense it would still "give me pause" when it came to considering SNP's independence plans.

If they can't do this "little thing" right how can they be expected to run a devolved Scotland?

(remember this is from an SNP voter)

8

Old Town Resident,

29/08/2007 09:36:54

No surprise on nursery cuts see March this year
http://www.edinburghsucks.com/index.php?s=nursery+cuts

9

davydee,

Edinburgh 29/08/2007 10:32:43

AT the Meeting at Drummond last night where Terry Wrigley stated at the meeting that this report was a farce and that they are saying research shows that pupils perform better in large schools nonsense it has been reported that smaller schools serving the community are by far better look at Drummond this school has had £6m spent on it it has many state of the art classrooms and a state of the art language room which is the model for the rest of Scotland it has a growing intake of pupils and a mix of cultures and ethnic children, This area is expanding all the time and the school roll is expected to rise further it is the view that this excersise is more a balancing of the books and in order to do this maximise land values in the city centre (ASSET STRIPPING ) Stockbridge,Abbeyhill,Broughton,St Marys are sitting on these areas well My childs future or any childs future are not being put in Jeopardy due to a rigged and false report so for all you councillors in Leith/Stockbridge/Broughton who voted against the people you serve by agreeing with this report you do not deserve to represent us and this will enhance the public view that you are no more than THUGS stealing our childrens future and destroying the fabric of our Community this will hurt you party both loccally and nationally so SNP/LIB DEMS this will not be forgotten

10

resident edinburgh,

29/08/2007 11:24:50

I wish that the Lib Dems/Nats would explain how "the Council's financial shortfall" comes about. Initial comments from both parites about black holes seemed to refer to the lack of a SURPLUS of £10million that both parties require for some reason.
If the budget will balance then there will be no shortfall. If the intention is to create a surplus of the amount stated, then the cuts are just another way of adding costs to the council tax payers. The cuts can equate to a council tax rise of 35%, services reduced by 35% then this is the effective cost.
They will also have to be maintained if the alliance wish to retain thier £10 million surplus.
It would be less costly for the council to borrow to meet the surpuls if and when it is required than for these cuts to go ahead now, at the present commercial borring rates they would save about £2m if they did not need to make the borrowing for two years and indeed if they had to borrow next month this cost would still be less that the cuts, plus the Council would still retain the assets.
How can this be good government and what do they want a £10m surplus for?

11

Hector Goodrich (Dr),

Gillin pronounced 'Gullane'. 29/08/2007 11:41:41

#5 Daibhidh
And what's Darling the donkey on about? He's an MP, he has no control or influence over the schools.

I am no admirer of Mr Darling but his principal residence is in Edinburgh. He therefore has a vote in the elections to the City of Edinburgh Council. As such he certainly does have some degree of influence when exercising his right to vote. He also has the right, as a citizen of Edinburgh, to express his views.

12

John.,

29/08/2007 12:59:03

have to admit to being somewhat astounded at the inability of my fellow residents to see the wood for the trees , as it were.

Let us look at some facts as regards the treatment of our fair City by the powers that be at Holyrood :-

Since 2001 the City of Edinburgh has seen an increase in population of 14%.

In the same period the monies provided by Central Government to our City has decreased in real terms.

Over that same period Glasgow has had an increase (in real terms) of its block grant yet its population has decreased by 3%

Our City has a legal (and perhaps a moral) obligation to provide services to all the City's residents whether they hail from Pilton or Poland. It is wrong however that our City is not receiving the requisite funding in order to provide these services.

To put it into hard figures in 2001 the City of Edinburgh had a budget of £2,300 per resident to provide services. The City now has £2,100 per resident to provide that same level of services. We are not £10M short we are £90M short.

The Political hue of our City administration does not matter.No matter who administers the City they will be hamstrung by Central Government policy and funding for the simple reason that for a number of years OUR CITY HAS BEEN TREATED UNFAIRLY by a West of Scotland biased administration.

Rather than we as the residents of Edinburgh fighting amongst ourselves should we not be fighting on behalf of our City ?

The SNP promised during the election campaign that they would be a Government for the whole Country and not (as the previous administration had been) a Government for the benefit of greater Glasgow.

Let us put that promise to the test. Below is the e-mail address of the Communities minister - The man who makes decisions on Local Government funding. E-mail him and pressure him to treat Edinburgh with fairness.Ask him "Where is Edinburgh's money and when are we going to get our fair share ?"

13

John.,

posting this (everywhere) 29/08/2007 13:22:42

You can find contact details for your MSP here

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/msploc...

It is time we stood up for our City and demanded that our elected representatives do the same.

14

PamCan Support St Cuthbert's,

Chesser 29/08/2007 16:21:48

Does Alistair Darling not have some sort of influence in all this?

To my mind he sets our taxes we pay them, he gives money to the Scottish Executive and they then give money to Edinburgh Council.

By the way St Cuthbert's is at over 75% occupancy and is not in anyway failing, its in the heart of our community and MUST stay open.

15

Seannair,

Oban 29/08/2007 23:49:33

Darling is the archetypical role model of a New Labour hypocrite. This ex-public school toff with a history as a radical left wing councillor has compromised and contradicted every cause he ever once espoused. It is no surprise that he attacks the present city administration for a course of action in the closure of nursery schools that was proposed by his Labour Party cronies when they were in charge up to May.
I recall his fearsome attacks on the Tories as they hamstrung CalMac to enable Western Ferries a preferential routong on the Upper Clyde. In power he did PRECISELY NOTHING. I suspect that he was at the forefront of the CND marches when real activists could not get to the front of the queue for Labour MPs and Union officials. Where are they now? Sitting on their hands as we continue to devastate Iraq and remaining silent on the upgrading if Trident and the shame of Rendition flights.

16

Non political,

Stockbridge Primary 30/08/2007 10:52:54

15. PamCan Support St Cuthbert's

Good for you

We are also "marked" even though we are a great FULL School, they will tear the heart out of our community. (probably wearing those new high priestess robes)


 

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