Schools building contract

Sir,

There appears to be some confusion regarding the building of the Western Isles schools. The Scottish Labour administration approved the building of the five schools in question, due to be financed by the disastrous PFI scheme, just prior to being voted out of office at Holyrood.

The SNP Government honoured all of the commitments made by the Labour administration. For the Western Isles schools it paid a large share of the building costs The SNP also subsequently built a further two new island schools.

As the SNP Government had to find the finance to build the schools which were built a few years after coming to power, it could easily be argued that these schools were built by the SNP

Despite having approval to build the new schools, CNES sat for more than two years before putting the schools out for tender.

The Labour-influenced CNES appeared to have an issue with local firms as they were not prepared to allow the build programme to be done by an island consortium - only to hand the whole build to an Irish consortium.

The CNES prevented local builders from being the prime contractor, instead telling island tradesmen to be content with the leftovers round the margins.

It's the same old story, Labour dawdle, the Scottish Government deliver. On Thursday, it has to be both votes SNP.

John MacDonald
Convenor
Lewis & Harris SNP

Letter: Labour-influenced council did not give main schools contract to island firms

2 May 2016