Latest news with #MullCampusProject
The Herald Scotland
5 hours ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Islanders launch legal challenge over Mull school location
A spokesperson for the group said that the council's approach has been 'shoddy and biased' and that they have been left with 'no option' but to pursue legal action. Argyll and Bute Council has faced significant criticism over its decision to locate the proposed new school in Tobermory, the main town on the island. The current school, also in Tobermory, incorporates a nursery, primary and secondary school, but surveys have shown that a majority supported moving the high school component to a central location in order to end the practice of some children being sent to board in Oban from the age of eleven. Throughout the process, the council has insisted that only a single-site approach is viable, and officials ultimately recommended the new school be built on a site on the southern edge Tobermory. This advice was accepted by councillors at a special sitting of the council in Lochgilphead. The situation has been described as an example of a 'wider democratic deficit' in Scotland, and islanders have told The Herald that the council has left them feeling 'silenced and belittled.' The move to build a new school was originally referred to as the 'Mull Campus Project', but recent communication from council officials has stated that 'the Tobermory Campus project is focussed on creating an improved and enhanced learning environment for the pupils within the current Tobermory High School catchment area.' The new legal action, being pursed by the Mull Campus Working Group, argues that the council's decision to limit itself to consideration of a single site, and the consequent narrowing of any consultation work, was 'inherently unfair'. They also believe that the council acted 'irrationally' in failing to properly consider the offer of free land at a central location, and allege councillors were misinformed about the offer itself. Finally, the group are challenging the failure to hold a formal vote on the proposals which they say contravenes the council's constitution. The campaigners say that they were 'warned not to challenge' the council's decision to locate the new school in Tobermory, and that delays to the programme could 'jeopardise Scottish Government funding,' which they described as being told to accept the plans as they are or risk getting 'nothing at all'. Building projects funded through the government's Learning Estate Improvement Programme (LEIP) scheme, which is being used for the new school on Mull, operate under set – and theoretically strict – deadlines, but education secretary Jenny Gilruth has confirmed in a letter to local MSP Jenni Minto that 'funding will not be withdrawn if the project faces delays, provided there is a clear and robust justification for Ministers to grant an extension to the completion date.' The government recently announced an additional £2million for another LEIP project – a new Gaelic primary school in Glasgow – to ensure that it is completed, with the project running many months behind schedule. A spokesperson for the Mull Campus Working Group said the council's processes were 'shoddy and biased from the outset'. The continued: 'Before the LEIP (Learning Estate Investment Programme) application was even submitted, our community council asked to be consulted, but they were refused any input. 'The people of Mull - and in particular families and children from the Ross of Mull who currently cannot access the island's only high school – were cruelly deceived. What was sold to them as 'a school for the whole island' was never intended to be any such thing. 'We naively trusted our councillors and officials to look at this fairly, and deliver a high school that was accessible to all. But they have manipulated the process to make sure it would never be delivered. In effect they said 'sure, you can have your central high school, but only if we remove primary and ELC provision from Mull's largest town and move it 21 miles away' 'That's not a choice, that's moral blackmail.' The campaigners say that attempts to find a mediated solution to the impasse were 'dashed' when the council refused to attend a roundtable event being organised by local Jenni Minto. They told The Herald that they had 'hoped for the best but prepared for the worst,' and that the council's decision to 'shut the door on a negotiated, constructive way forward' has left them 'no option but to take this to the Court of Session in Edinburgh.' Argyll and Bute Council and the Scottish Government have been approached for comment.
The Herald Scotland
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Why should pupils and families on Mull settle for 'good enough'?
There is a tendency in government to consider a decision as etched in stone, even if the outcome is not ideal: "live and learn", "we'll get'em next time", and all that. Governments are reluctant to revisit decisions or grant special consideration because they risk setting a precedent in which every stakeholder in the future will demand an exception. But is that such a bad thing? Surely one of the responsibilities of the government is to take every decision on its merits. Leaders shouldn't sit on their hands just because intervening means they will have to have an awkward conversation with someone later on, so what should the government do when it looks like things have gone wrong? The question was raised this week at Holyrood, during a debate on 'empowering Scotland's island communities.' The recent decision by Argyll and Bute Council on where to build a new school on Mull was brought back into the spotlight, and highlighted by Conservative MSP Tim Eagle as an example of 'when things go wrong' when decision-makers ask island communities for their opinions but don't really listen to their answers. Read more: Lessons to Learn | The SNP reduced education targets and hoped no one would notice The Herald covered the saga of the Mull Campus Project extensively and the council's eventual decision to locate the replacement for the island's crumbling school in the northern town of Tobermory. This effectively cut off the southern half of the island from attending. Those communities will continue with the longstanding practice of sending their children to board on the mainland during the week. Parents who boarded as children and struggled with life away from home initially heralded the Mull Campus Project as a chance to break the cycle for the next generation. Increasingly, however, they became disillusioned with the process and felt that the project was moving to a foregone conclusion: the school would be put in the north, and things would stay as they are. Their hopes were up initially in part because parents could not imagine how the project could be called a Mull Campus if it was not going to be built where the whole island could benefit. In a way, they were proved right: following the decision, the council began referring to it as the 'Tobermory Campus Project' in all communications, even to the extent that nearly all previous mentions of the Mull Campus were replaced on the webpages that had been online for years. Read more: Mull school series – how to read every article There were repeated calls for the government to intervene with extra funding, extra allowances or extra time for the council to explore options that islanders were raising repeatedly and passionately, but the government declined to act at every turn. This, Mr Eagle said, was a mistake. But it is 'not too late,' he added. 'I think, in all seriousness, that there is something we can do around this. 'For the whole island to be successful, it was vital all were listened to. And time and time again I was contacted by people across the island that raised concerns about the process of consultation. 'Because ultimately, and this is my own opinion, the financial impact on the council was a much bigger consideration for councillors in Argyll and Bute than what the residents of Mull thought themselves.' Too often, he said, rural and island communities are reduced to a numbers game. This is how it plays out nationally, where these areas will always be dwarfed by larger population centres. But this is also how the decision played out on Mull, where the sheer weight of population repeatedly pushed the conversation towards Tobermory. Decisions like these, Mr Eagle said, require a 'bespoke arrangement,' something that campaigners on Mull and my colleague James McEnaney argued during the course of our coverage. Mr Eagle said the Mull decision 'needed community, government and council to come together' and create a plan that worked for the whole island. Mr Eagle's comments came at the end of a debate that touched on the challenges of connectivity and how Scotland's islands have been underserved in this regard. 'Rural Life is built into our very cultural heritage, with traditions and languages and history baked into our national identity. And rural services delivery does come with a higher cost, but if we want rural areas to thrive, we want our islands to thrive, we must accept that point. 'Education, like on Mull, that relies on ferries and weather and the separation of families, to me, is never a good thing.' He said the project 'necessitated' government involvement, and he called on the government to step in to revisit the decision and fully engage with the community and the council about alternatives. Historically speaking, it seems unlikely that the government will do so but the calls for action remain consistent. Even supporters of the campus in Tobermory recognised that it is not a perfect solution. In fact, the council's own papers admitted that none of the options they put forward would serve every community: 'Under the constraints of the available funding, it is unlikely that either of the campus locations would be able to provide a fully equal solution for all children and young people living on Mull and the islands." That leads to the real question at the heart of this decision and many others that affect life on Scotland's islands: why settle for 'good enough'? If everyone agrees that policy, logistical and financial constraints will usually keep islanders from getting a fair shake, why can't we get creative now and then? You can get in touch with our education writers by email:
