Comhairle supporting the community 13/2/12
Sirs,
It is likely that when you read this I may well have completed my fourth visit to the New Nicolson Institute. I appreciate that as a councillor and a board member of Sgoiltean Ura, I am privileged to be able to make these visits as the new school develops. This development is very close to my heart. There will be an opportunity for everyone to visit the school once it is handed over later this year ready for opening to pupils in August.
During my time as a teacher at The Nicolson, the campus was a constant building-
This project, and the five other new schools that are being built by the Comhairle, is a significant achievement. They certainly could not have been undertaken had not the funding gap for the project been filled with the help of savings from the schools’ rationalisation programme. The end result of the two projects will be that 46% of our pupils will be housed in new accommodation and the rest in schools refurbished to a very high standard.
Regrettably our school population has dropped by 50% over the past thirty years. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Schools told the Comhairle it had too many schools and indeed the funding from government dropped year on year as the rolls dropped. The Comhairle could not maintain its own school estate. Action was needed.
The process by which the Comhairle awarded the schools contract to FMP (which is not a ‘foreign’ company) was laid down by the Scottish Government. The government is obliged to abide by the rules too, as in its recent awarding of the Forth Bridge contract to a consortium of European and US firms with one UK firm whose Scottish subsidiary is Morrisons.
Any organisation dealing with public money is obliged to make best use of the public purse. In that regard arising out of the schools contract, to the end of December, there has been c.£21million spent locally, directly and indirectly, and around 70 local firms have been employed by FMP.
Three schools are already complete on time and on budget and the other three are on track to complete as agreed. Those new schools have been warmly welcomed by their communities.
In addition to the schools project, which is the biggest project ever undertaken
by the Comhairle, there has been extensive capital spend in the local community.
The capital programme runs from 2008 -
There is one area where the Comhairle has no input and that is in the building of
houses. This year the Scottish government awarded HHP £534,000; that is woefully
inadequate and compares very unfavourably with previous years. In 2007-
The Comhairle can rightly take great pride in projects like the Castlebay Fitness
Suite, the Stornoway Town Hall Redevelopment, the Stornoway Town Centre Development,
the new Harris House, Kallin Harbour and the Creative Industries and Media Centre
to name just a few significant developments; and that does not include the numerous
road and coastal protection projects. Nor does it include support for community projects,
the fishing industry, the Harris Tweed industry nor the many local businesses which
have received start-
Given the difficult times in which we live, I believe that the Comhairle has done well in supporting its own community during this term.
Angus McCormack
Councillor Stornoway South
25 North Street
Sandwick
Isle of Lewis
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