News / Breakdown of blueprint costs
LAST WEEK it emerged that Shetland Islands Council has spent nearly £640,000 on its blueprint for education – much of it swallowed up conducting consultations on whether to shut schools.
Figures provided by the local authority following a freedom of information request by Shetland News this summer show that six-figure sums were spent in all four financial years from 2010/11 to 2013/14.
The amount of money – and education staff’s time – spent on a lengthy succession of consultations provoked the ire of councillors on both sides of the debate last week.
Councillor Allison Duncan has called for an inquiry into the spending, which – once consultations pre-dating the blueprint are taken into account – exceeds £1 million in just over a decade.
Following the decision to throw out proposals to shut primary schools in North Roe and Urafirth last week, SIC leader Gary Robinson said it would be a waste of officials’ time to continue with planned consultations on shutting Burravoe and Sandness primaries.
Since the blueprint for education exercise commenced in 2008, the council has pushed through the closure of secondary departments in Scalloway and Skerries, along with primaries in Uyeasound and Olnafirth.
Bressay’s primary has also closed due to parental demand in that time, while Burravoe was set to shut in 2012 before the Scottish Government intervened to overturn its closure.
Figures provided by the schools service show a seven-year spending tally of £637,000 on the blueprint – including an estimated £58,000 budgeted for the current financial year.
Back in 2008/9 the local authority spent only £14,089 on the blueprint, rising to £45,056 in 2009/10.
The following year, which included the Scalloway consultation, blueprint spending rose to a peak of £157,482. In 2011/12 it was £125,755.
After the last set of council elections, in the summer of 2012 councillors agreed to a “refresh” of the blueprint.
Spending fell slightly in 2012/13 to £101,337 – then rose to £135,124 in 2013/14.
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