Katy Gordon

It will be a sad return to school next week for hundreds of primary school pupils, who found out today that Labour councillors are refusing to save their schools.  Children in Ruchill Primary will raise one cheer at the stay of execution granted their school till 2010, but parents at St Agnes have contrasted this with the failure to grant a similar concession to them, despite the fact that an alternative proposal was on the drawing board.

Katy Gordon, Liberal Democrat Westminster spokesperson for Glasgow North today branded the Labour councillors’ decision to press ahead with closure of all bar one of the primary schools in Glasgow a disgrace.  Katy said:

“How can anyone believe that with 8000 responses to the consultation, 96% of which opposed to the closures, that this was a genuine consultation, when the huge voice of protest has been virtually ignored? Labour simply aren’t listening.  And yet again opposition councillors were bypassed as Labour tried to spin the news despite rejecting virtually all the arguments for alternatives. Is it any wonder local people think Labour don’t care?

I am sure the parents of Wyndford and St Gregory’s, who care so much about their community’s schools that they have been camping out inside them in protest, will find it hard to believe their voices have been brushed aside so easily.

As Labour has tied itself in knots on the closures, spending more time apparently on presentation than on genuinely considering alternatives, the local Labour MP appears more interested in competitons to find the best curry house in Britain than in the future of local primary schools. “