Glasgow nurseries fight closure
Twelve nurseries and 13 schools in Glasgow face closure if proposals put forward by the city council go ahead.
The plans would affect more than 2,000 children and 100 teachers, who will be re-deployed to other settings.
Glasgow council claims that many of the schools and nurseries earmarked for closure are in 'crumbling buildings' with many surplus places. As part of its proposals, £5m will be spent on refurbishing the schools and nurseries that are to absorb the extra pupils.
Councillor Steven Purcell said, 'Children deserve to be in better accommodation, but in this financial climate we cannot afford to build new schools and nurseries through prudential borrowing. In my opinion, our only option is to merge schools and nurseries.'
Around 40 parents took part in a protest at City Chambers on Friday. Twenty parents were allowed into the council's executive committee meeting, which agreed to a public consultation. If the plans are approved, the schools will close in August.
Gabi Cullen, whose son, aged four-and-a-half, attends the threatened Nithsdale Nursery School, and whose two-and-a-half-year- old daughter is due to start in September, said, 'The nursery is full to capacity and has a waiting list. The building is old, but it is a beautiful building that was built by tobacco merchants and it is worth a lot of money.
'The council want to move the children to a nursery which is a mile and a half away, when the council's own guidelines say that the setting should be within buggy-pushing distance. The council needs to stop lying to us.'
Mrs McLaughlin, whose five-year-old daughter attends Shawbridge nursery, another of the settings earmarked for closure, said, 'I was shocked to hear of the plans. It is a great nursery, which they are proposing to merge with a smaller nursery that has no outdoor play area. How can they move all the children from this nursery to one that is smaller? There is nothing wrong with the building, and it is very convenient for where I live.'
A final decision on the proposals is expected from the council by April.
