Parents furious over £1,000 mail out

SCALLOWAY Parent Council has lodged a formal complaint against Shetland Islands Council for sending parents a brochure for the school they don’t want their children forced to attend.

The parent council is fighting a council proposal to close the Scalloway secondary department and send its 116 pupils to Lerwick’s Anderson High School to save money.

Last week the council sent all Scalloway secondary parents an AHS brochure, generating outrage when it emerged that the move had cost the authority £1,000.

SIC services committee chairman Gussie Angus defended the move saying that he wanted to counter negative comments made about the quality of education youngsters received at the AHS.

But parents council vice chairwoman Karen Eunson said: “To spend this sum of money at a time when communities are being faced with school closures is quite shocking.

“The Save Scalloway School campaign, led by the parent council, has not made any negative comments about the teachers or pupils of the AHS.

“What we have done is draw attention to the poor condition of the current buildings and we have based these comments principally on the evidence in the local authority’s own proposal paper on relocation of the AHS.

“It is not in the interest of pupils at either Scalloway or the Anderson High to add an extra 116 pupils to the roll of a school which has such significant maintenance problems, and such limited dining and social facilities, that it is already scheduled for replacement.”

The consultation on closing the secondary departments of Scalloway and Skerries schools, as well as relocating the Anderson High School to the Lower Staney Hill area, closed at midnight on Sunday.

The council has received well over 500 written submissions during the six week consultation period.

Councillors will have to make a decision on the proposals by the end of November.