Emergency meeting about schools
Thanks to the ever helpful Council Officers, I the following motion is going in front of a private meeting on Thursday, followed by a public meeting of the Council:
The report is available here, and on at para 4.4 you will see that Education will need to save 7.7% of their budget in 2010/11 to balance the books. Read the report and weep.
The exact financial position is largely unclear until the report to Policy and Finance Committee in October, but the impact is obviously huge. Time to start again, rather than stagger from decision to decision.
We the undersigned, demand that a meeting of the Comhairle be called as soon as possible and not later than Wednesday 24th September. The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss the political and financial implications of the decision taken at full Council on Thursday 4th September 2008 in relation to the cessation of S1/2 education in the Western Isles and the likely impact on the WISP programme(sic), on the education of all children in our schools, and on the unallocated funds in the capital programme.Signed: Angus MacCormick, Donald J MacSween, Neil Campbell, Keith Dodson, Norman MacLeod (signature withdrawn 18/9/08), Kenneth MacIver, Charlie Nicolson, Kenneth Murray,John A MacIver, Murdo MacLeod, Martin Taylor, Catherine MacDonald, Donald Manford, Annie MacDonald, Philip McLean, Peter Carlin, Uisdean Robertson, Archie Campbell and indecipherable.
The report is available here, and on at para 4.4 you will see that Education will need to save 7.7% of their budget in 2010/11 to balance the books. Read the report and weep.
The exact financial position is largely unclear until the report to Policy and Finance Committee in October, but the impact is obviously huge. Time to start again, rather than stagger from decision to decision.
7 comments:
"We the undersigned, demand that a meeting of the Comhairle be called as soon as possible and not later than Wednesday 24th September."
When is the meeting being held?
Thursday 25th September. DUH!
piss up brewery in a organise cannot idiots these.
Rearrange the words! {;-)
Sorry, I was under the impression that the Comhairle was short of money, and sweeping cuts have to be made everywhere?
In which case, why the £%"^ are they giving 1.1 million pounds of money to organisations for mainly "arts" based projects? Is that essential? More important than schools? Explain.
From Alasdair Allan's election manifesto about funding schools:
...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.
Time to challenge our MSP to deliver, for the benefit of the children of these islands.
From Alasdair Allan's election manifesto about funding schools:
...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.
Time to challenge our MSP to deliver, for the benefit of the children of these islands.
Loads and loads of figures but figures on their own mean nothing - what are the implications for each and all of the services when the councillors make a decision? - that we must be told!
Oh and who believes that further savings will not be required as revenue costs go higher than currently estimated, as the capital costs of the PPP schemes go higher than currently estimated, as the future revenue costs of the PPP schools are higher than the current estimates!?
I hope I'm wrong but we will see!!
I trust those who scab and/or don't belong to a union will be too embarrassed to accept any payrises that occur from the current action. There's another pig flying past the window.
Does anyone know where you can find out how much the schools saga has cost already? The Comhairle can't be that short of cash 'cos they're able to spend on new office building, http://planning.cne-siar.gov.uk/PublicAccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=K602UGRO01X00&searchtype=WEEKLY
yet it seems as if there's no funds for spending on schools?
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