Campaigners who fought against plans to group schools into ‘collectives’ have attacked councillors for not demanding an independent inquiry.
Argyll and Bute dropped is proposals – originally named ‘clusters’ – after overwhelming opposition from parents and teachers across the area.
The council is run by a coalition of Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and independents, who together with senior officials said there was no need for inquiry – even though it was revealed in June that cost-cutting was part of the exercise, despite public assurances to the contrary.
Campaigners met senior members of the opposition SNP party in the hope that they would back an independent inquiry into how the consultation was handled, but the SNP said this was not in the best interests of the council.
Read more: Cost of PR consultants for school collectives revealed
Tracy Mayo, a parent from Mull, said she had been ‘shocked’ by the response.
“We were not requesting a point the finger exercise/blame game exercise, but an independent review of a ‘deeply flawed process’, a process that has caused huge reputational damage to the council,” she said.
“In addition, it has deeply offended the communities they serve.
“The request was for a short-term inquiry by a suitably qualified individual, it need not be lengthy or expensive.”
And former SNP councillor Mike Breslin said lessons had not been learnt since the authority’s abortive attempt to close more than 20 schools in 2011.
“The education service does some sterling work, of that I have no doubt, but it also does a number of things worse than anywhere else. This is one such example,” he wrote in an email to SNP group leader Jim Lynch.
“It is precisely in the interests of the council and the service to have an inquiry.
“If this was a group decision, it’s a very bad one that abandons local communities and allows the same group of officers and elected members to try the same thing again.”
An SNP statement today said that the council’s audit and scrutiny committee, which has an independent non-council chairperson, would look at hoe the council carries out consultations.
Th statement added: “The SNP group were resolute in their support of parents against the proposals to introduce collective leadership model in Argyll and Bute.
“We engaged constructively with the parents group in the lead-up to the matter coming before the council.
“We were delighted that the proposal was withdrawn.
“We believe that it is right that Argyll and Bute Council reflect and learn from the process that was undertaken.
“It has been agreed that audit & scrutiny will scrutinise how the council undertakes consultations.”
If the council SNP group think that an internal generic review of how to run a consultation will fix the long standing issues, they presumably also believe in Santa and tooth fairies.
The education service is a serial offender at destroying trust. Look at the school closure programme in 2009/10; the deceit inflicted on Dunoon in 2011 over plans to build a huge primary campus: the destruction of the community buyout of Castle Toward, etc.
This needs an external, independent inquiry. The Mickey Mouse stuff the SNP Group supports won’t do.
To add to this, as a member of the then audit committee for 3 years or so between 2012 and 2917, it is toothless. The ‘independent ‘ chair is ineffective and shuts down debate and questions from members.
Naivety is the enemy of scrutiny, something the SNP Group doesn’t understand. It has some good councillors on it but as a group it’s dysfunctional, with no proper leadership.
Only an independent inquiry will do what us needed.