School closures called in

THE SCOTTISH government has called in the decisions to close Burravoe and Uyeasound primary schools.

The government’s head of schools infrastructure, Jonathan Moore, has written to the council saying ministers have concluded the council “may not have paid sufficiently special regard to alternatives prior to moving to consultation”.

The government had received 65 requests for the Burravoe decision to be called in, with a further 60 from Uyeasound.

Shetland Islands Council’s education and families committee chair Betty Fullerton said the decision was now “effectively out of our hands as a council”.

She added: “For the sake of the pupils, teachers and parents at both Uyeasound and Burravoe, I trust the decisions won’t take too long, as I know that this will be a very unsettling time.”