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The Herald Scotland
14-07-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Mull school campaigners a step closer to court date
A petition for a Judicial Review was lodged with the Court of Session in Edinburgh in June, and was followed by a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised more than £50,000 in just one week. The campaigners have now confirmed that their application has been accepted by the court, which they say 'essentially means that the judge agrees there is a case to answer, and that it has real prospects of success". Argyll and Bute Council now has 14 days to respond to the petition. If it decides to contest the action, a formal hearing is expected in October. A spokesperson for the Mull Campus Working Group Ltd (MCWG), which is pursuing the legal case, said that "democracy is severely lacking" in Argyll and Bute Council but that their community is "more united than ever". The group had previously said that the council's decision-making around the new school had been 'shoddy and biased', which they say left them with 'no option' but to take the matter to court. They argue that the council has behaved irrationally, unfairly, and outwith the bounds of its own regulations, and that the decision to base the new school in Tobermory should therefore be reversed. 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'. Read more: Speaking recently to the Press and Journal, local councillor and administration member Andrew Kain, who had previously been highly critical of those pushing for a central high school, has suggested that islanders were misled by the council. He said that despite residents being told that the location of the new school was a matter for consultation, and the council running a 'call for sites' and a formal review of several options, the project was only ever intended to be 'a replacement for Tobermory High School'. 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". Although the new school building is being delivered by Argyll and Bute Council, the authority plans to use a Scottish Government funding scheme known as the Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP). Education secretary Jenny Gilruth has already confirmed that delays to the project will not jeopardise financial support, and the government has also found and allocated additional funding to ensure that a new Gaelic primary school in Glasgow, which is also LEIP-funded, can be completed. The council is currently facing another active judicial review over its handling of plans for a supermarket on Helensburgh waterfront. During a hearing at the beginning of July, lawyers representing Argyll and Bute Council argued that local people had no right to challenge the decision, regardless of how it was made. Speaking exclusively to The Herald, a spokesperson for the Mull Campus Working Group Ltd said: 'We are all delighted that our petition has been granted the hearing it deserves. It has taken a huge effort from a team of volunteers to get us to this point and an incredible response from the community to support that work in the form of donations to fund this case. On the other hand we are disappointed that all of this hard work from the Mull community could have been avoided if Argyll and Bute council had chosen to work with us in the open and transparent way that was promised from the new administration. It is also shocking to us all that the council says they have no money to fund community solutions, yet find a bottomless pit to fund their legal defence in this, now their second judicial review. 'The themes of a lack of consultation and meaningful impact assessments conducted by those most closely affected, seem to be endemic across multiple projects and increasingly communities are not feeling represented or heard. The conclusion is that democracy is severely lacking at Kilmory in the eyes of the electorate. 'We hold out hope that a period of introspection by the administration at Kilmory and a commitment to work with us, will mean this legal action does not have to run its course. No one is enjoying having to work this way with our elected and non-elected officials and the stress caused and sacrifices made from countless hours of unpaid work has taken its toll on us all. The core team of volunteers are from all over the island from the north to the south, many will not be directly affected by the decisions being taken, but all of us feel that getting it right for every child and indeed our entire island is too important and this is a decision which will have ramifications for generations to come. 'The council now have two weeks to make their responses in defence of the grounds laid out. It's also worth noting that we have not delayed the project in any way by these actions, the campus team are progressing with spending taxpayers' money on their advanced business case no matter what objections are raised by us or councillor colleagues at Kilmory. The team are also planning statutory consultation to begin after the school holidays, which rather begs the question, why did they not have statutory consultation when applying for LEIP funding or during the process of deciding where this school should be built? 'Rather than the division that A&B expected the community seems more united than ever in their grit and support to do things better for the next generations of children on Mull. We are continually humbled by the response to our actions as a working group and the support that backs us at every stage.' The Herald approached Argyll and Bute Council and asked if it intended to contest the legal action from the Mull Campus Working Group. The council was also asked to respond to Councillor Kain's comments that those on the island were misled. A spokesperson responded to state that the council will not be commenting while legal proceedings are ongoing.
The Herald Scotland
09-06-2025
- 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.
