Labour will pay heavy electoral price for ignoring local opinion 

SNP Councillor James Dornan, Leader of the Opposition on Glasgow Council, has welcomed an overwhelming vote at the SNP conference supporting the local campaigners opposed to the Labour-run council’s plans to close and merge 25 primary and nursery schools across the city

Speaking after the vote at the SNP conference in Glasgow Councillor Dornan said: "This is a significant development in the campaign to make the Labour-run council think again about their decision to close and merge 25 schools across Glasgow.

"What we have seen over the past few months has been little more than a paper exercise. Despite overwhelming proof that the consultation was flawed Labour have decided to carry out their plans to close and merge up to 25 nursery and primary schools across Glasgow, as they always intended.

"Over 7,200 people responded to the consultation with almost 7000 voting against these proposals yet Labour have wilfully disregarded the views of 96% of respondents to their consultation and gone ahead with almost all of their closures and mergers.

"Even more oddly half of the 4% who didn’t oppose the closures and mergers were pupils.

"This makes a mockery of the Labour council’s claims to be willing to listen to public opinion.

"If they don’t relent to pressure before next Thursday and put communities before careers Labour will pay a heavy electoral price in Glasgow starting with June’s European elections."

Note:

The motion is as follows:

School Closures

Conference condemns the proposals of Glasgow City Council’s Labour administration to close and merge 25 primary and nursery schools across the city and considers that the consultation process has been shambolic and flawed from the start.

Conference believes these proposals will damage the educational opportunities available to Glasgow’s youngest children and will rob communities across the city of vital facilities.

Conference supports the campaign by the parents and carers of children who attend these schools and nurseries to preserve decent education facilities in their communities; regrets the use of children as political footballs by Glasgow City Council and calls on them to abandon these proposals.

Supported by:

Glasgow City Council SNP Group
Glasgow Springburn Constituency Branch
Glasgow Maryhill Constituency Branch
Glasgow Kelvin Constituency Association
Glasgow West End Branch
Pollokshields Branch
Cllr Grant Thoms, Elected Member
Patrick Grady, Elected Member
Anne McLaughlin MSP