LOTHIAN Region's Education Department officials are now poring over
submissions from the people of West Lothian and discovering how much
anger can be generated by a proposal which will save just #280,000 a
year.
The region is paying the price of the failure of previous
administrations to provide Roman Catholic education in Livingston.
In the past 25 years the town has seen the building of four
non-denominational secondary schools, but every day over 600 children
are bussed out to either St Kentigern's in Blackburn or the elderly St
Mary's in Bathgate for Roman Catholic education.
The deadline was on Tuesday for public consultation on a two-for-one
deal which will allow the building of a #9m school in the town in
exchange for closure of St Mary's and Our Lady's High School in
Broxburn. The council's education committee will take its final decision
in January.
It is the closure of Our Lady's which is causing the most heartache
for the council and the Roman Catholic Church. Almost unanimously, the
parents have ignored appeals from Archbishop Keith O'Brien and their
local parish priest not to run a campaign to save their schools. The
Church wants the new school in Livingston at any cost.
It was these parents who went to the Court of Session in 1984 to
overturn a decision by the region's previous Tory adminis- tration to
close the school. They were backed by the Labour Party, which came to
power in 1986 pledged to retain the schools.
The number of pupils at Our Lady's has dropped from 400 in 1983 to
186. Education for fifth- and sixth-year pupils is maintained only by a
close links with the nearby non-denominational Broxburn Academy, and if
numbers fall further, the arrangement would have to apply throughout the
school. ''To maintain a broad-based curriculum is practically
impossible,'' said Councillor Keith Geddes, chairman of the region
education committee.
The Labour Party is split on the issue. The regional party's policy is
to adopt the two-for-one deal. This is opposed strongly by the
Livingston Constituency Party, which wants a three-school option with St
Kentigern's and Our Lady's operating alongside the new Livingston
school, and St Mary's closing. The annual running costs of three schools
is, at #1,032,000, only #280,000 more than for two schools.
A series of public meetings over the last fortnight has failed to
clear up disagreement. Livingston and Blackburn parents were solidly
behind the new plan for a school in Livingston and the closure of the
two in Bathgate and Broxburn. But in Broxburn they remained unanimously
opposed to anything which would hurt their school, while in Bathgate
they seemed to suffer from apathy.
In Broxburn the campaign is backed by their three Labour district
councillors and their regional Labour councillor, Tony Kinder, who said:
''I will be offering every element of support I can against the regional
council in any action over the closure of Our Lady's High School.''
The campaign has already collected 10,000 signatures on a petition to
save the school and the hope is to gather 30,000 before the education
committee decides on the issue next month.
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