An affront to democracy
This was how Cllr Roddy MacKay correctly described the farce that was the special meeting of the Council last night.
A £13m hole in the budget caused by the decision delaying the closure of schools - or more accurately, by being forced to use a totally inappropriate PFI/PPP model to fund the new schools - and the Councillors don't have the courtesy to layout the impact of their decision to the employees, service users, and the general public.
Next year will see budgets cut by 4% across the board - 2% savings demanded by the Scottish Government and 2% to fund the shortfall.
Listen carefully: it cannot be done.
A private business can adjust quickly; the public sector cannot. To make cuts of that size, effectively overnight, will mean redundancies, which in turn means consultation with staff and unions, and with statutory services effectively protected, there are some services that will be completely shut down.
Of course, the Council Tax freeze has exacerbated this problem, with an expectation amongst the public that somehow less income means no impact on services.
As LazyChicken quoted from Alasdair Allan's election address...
...as with other councils, the Executive's policy on PFI/PPP meant Comhairle nan Eilean Siar had little choice but to go down this route. However, the SNP's policy would prevent the Comhairle ever having to face long term costs on such a scale again.
He wants the schools kept open, but (according to my sources) won't meet with the Council to have a joint lobby with the Government for the additional funds to meet these costs.
I have no problem with the rural schools remaining open, as the recent Scottish Government legislation seems to force, but they should meet the additional - substantial - cost of their policy decision, not you and I.
I say it again. Scrap the entire PFI project. Find out what schools are going to have to stay open under the new legislation. Then redesign the new schools to meet the new reality. Then build them using sensible ie traditional, funding techniques. And the Scottish Government are to meet the reasonable additional capital costs (or take any capital savings!) that this approach delivers.
A £13m hole in the budget caused by the decision delaying the closure of schools - or more accurately, by being forced to use a totally inappropriate PFI/PPP model to fund the new schools - and the Councillors don't have the courtesy to layout the impact of their decision to the employees, service users, and the general public.
Next year will see budgets cut by 4% across the board - 2% savings demanded by the Scottish Government and 2% to fund the shortfall.
Listen carefully: it cannot be done.
A private business can adjust quickly; the public sector cannot. To make cuts of that size, effectively overnight, will mean redundancies, which in turn means consultation with staff and unions, and with statutory services effectively protected, there are some services that will be completely shut down.
Of course, the Council Tax freeze has exacerbated this problem, with an expectation amongst the public that somehow less income means no impact on services.
As LazyChicken quoted from Alasdair Allan's election address...
...as with other councils, the Executive's policy on PFI/PPP meant Comhairle nan Eilean Siar had little choice but to go down this route. However, the SNP's policy would prevent the Comhairle ever having to face long term costs on such a scale again.
He wants the schools kept open, but (according to my sources) won't meet with the Council to have a joint lobby with the Government for the additional funds to meet these costs.
I have no problem with the rural schools remaining open, as the recent Scottish Government legislation seems to force, but they should meet the additional - substantial - cost of their policy decision, not you and I.
I say it again. Scrap the entire PFI project. Find out what schools are going to have to stay open under the new legislation. Then redesign the new schools to meet the new reality. Then build them using sensible ie traditional, funding techniques. And the Scottish Government are to meet the reasonable additional capital costs (or take any capital savings!) that this approach delivers.
10 comments:
The PFI model of paying back the dosh for several decades also assumes that the concepts of "school" and "schooling" are going to stay the same over that time.
Well, they're not.
Online learning is (finally) becoming a mainstream form of content and education provision in some quarters of Higher Education, in the US and closer to home. The assumption that in 2028 kids in a specific area are still going to converge and occupy a central building, 9 till 4, 5 days a week, is looking increasingly daft.
Demographic changes, the prohibitive cost of building, better online learning infrastructure, and next gen broadband, will likely mean trials in the next decade for different models of online/building based teaching. More likely, trials will be in rural location with their relatively high costs and logistical problems of providing a uniform curriculum.
Things are going to change in education provision, and it's already happening. Quickly. This may seem far-fetched/Sci-Fi. But if you'd explained to someone 20 years ago that in 2008 over a third of employment in the western world depended in some way on "The Internet" they'd have thought you mad then.
Central point: Your kids will still "go to a school" five days a week. Their kids may not. Agreeing to pay for several decades for a physical school building is just not financially sensible.
Even as a wee boy my granny used to ask me what I thought!
But with our "representative" councillors we are not allowed to hear what they are discussing so please tell me how we are supposed to know if they are listening to us!!?
great stuff vww! or should I say Raymond Baxter? All this vision of a tomorrow's world where there are no school buildings just learning at home does not take account of social activities, child supervision (would it be you or the wife staying home). instead we will have children sitting at home in front of a computer 17 hours a day with no concept of an 'outside world'. that aside you are right to criticise cnes for mortgaging our future!!
What is so depressing is that really no-one seems unduly worried by the increasingly authoritarian behaviour of our councillors.
It is worth remembering that Campbell only just scrapped back in, yet the Comhairle fawns over him as if without him the islands would collapse.
Unfortunately there is a simple and obvious observation to be made. The development of whatever problems the islands now have, have been presided over by our incumbents.
All the more laughable that Campbell is reported as putting his toys back in the pram so that he could provide 'leadership' at this critical point. Sorry but wasn't it under his leadership that we have arrived at this critical point.
And like some desperate looser, their last resort on everything is to stand wailing that people don't understand the special hardships of the islands, always pleading for more money and lashing out at anyone who dares question or criticize.
If we are heading for a car crash maybe we need something new in the driving seat.
Ian MacIver wrote on his blog:
Even some of the gold-braid councillors are apparently prepared to threaten care services and road-mending just because half a dozen loud, tearful parents want to keep crumbling, draughty schools open because their grandparents went there.
Harsh. And it'll win him no friends. But there's more than a ring of truth to it.
11.46
not half a dozen - all parents of pupils in Lionel and Shawbost want sec ed retained on Westside.
Pray do tell who these 'gold-braid' councillors are?
I suggest that they all go on one of those 'away days' to have bonding sessions and organise team events. Venue: The Flannan Isles.
totp
What's the difference between what vww is saying and the reality in many parts of the Western Isles where a single child makes up one year on their own. What social interaction do they get with no classmates of their own ages. The only benefit I can see is that the birthday parties must be cheap.
The councillors should have had the balls to close the rural schools immediately, take a bit of pain in the popularity stakes and move on.
totp - you said it, bang on target. Vww clearly lives in a virtual and presumably bairn-free world himself and is happy enough there, but there is a real world out here too. That kind of "forecasting" is at the level of our own dear comhairle - lets trot out some media-fed observations and make some trite conclusions. Making proper use of online resources is one thing, but only one thing.
We can at least all agree that PFI is a pishtake.
Anon 11.15 - I think we're proving here that we are very unduly (or even duly) worried about this indeed.
Anon 11.45 - in my experience a child in a year by himself gets plenty of social interaction, with all the rest of his school and develops a healthy ability to interact with both his juniors and his seniors, and there's no suggestion that these wee primary schools cause any social problems - quite the opposite. Secondary is a different issue of course.
What hours of fun the antics of CNIS councillors are providing. I am getting better entertainment value from my council tax than I ever got from my licence fee.
Keep at it boys and girls and more power to your funny bones.
Remember BCCI and don't falter. You have a lot to live down to.
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