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The letter below was issued in response to an extraordinarily, but
not unexpectedly, patronising letter from Cllr Catriona Bhatia,
Education portfolio holder at Scottish Borders Council, to my
colleague Cllr Bill Herd (Southern Reporter 3rd July):
in the Southern Reporter, 10 July 2008
Dear Ms Windram
Cllr Bhatia (Lib Dem) was absolutely right to
highlight that any Government must be judged on its record. This
also applies to the Lib Dem and Labour governments between 1999 and
2007.
The last closures did happen under an
Independent/Conservative controlled council which was formed in the
aftermath of the collapse of its Lib Dem led predecessor that
oversaw one of the worst failures in budgetary control ever seen in
Scotland. Subsequent closures were driven, in part, by the funding
crisis, while decisions were taken while Euan Robson MSP (Lib Dem)
was Deputy Minister for Education. The Lib Dems did not introduce a
statutory presumption against closure of rural schools; something
the SNP Government is rectifying. The Lib Dems signed off on 147
school closures between 1999 and 2007, including eight in the
Borders, such as Burnmouth and Hutton, where strong campaigns were
ignored. A Lib Dem led council did close Foulden Primary.
As regards the school building programme, she
is quite simply wrong. Since May 2007, 47 school construction
projects have been approved and 14 of those schools are being funded
by non-profit distributing models of finance. By 2011, around 250
schools will be built. Locally, a £54 million share of a total of
£3 billion in funds has been allocated to SBC for capital projects
over the next three years. SBC must choose its priorities for this
funding, but sadly half of that funding is needed to pay expensive
loan charges.
Cllr Bhatia’s favoured PPP/PFI results in
credit card interest rates being paid for school buildings, or
buying one school for the price of two and a half. The 3 High
Schools project will create schools worth £72.5 million, but at what
cost, if this is being repaid at credit card rates of interest over
the next 30 years? Initially the annual charge will cost £6.2
million per annum and, in nominal terms, the total cost for the
schools is estimated by SBC to be £302 million, if inflation is at
2.5%. In an equivalent Highlands project, private investors will
earn £5.9m in returns for just £197 in equity.
Cllr Bhatia says that for eight years PPP/PFI
was “the only game in town”. Her party had those eight years to
develop an alternative, but did nothing. The SNP Government is
consulting on an alternative model, the Scottish Futures Trust
(SFT). SFT will avoid the exorbitant rates of interest of the PPP
model. We do not intend to buy today only to lumber future
generations with massive debts. PPP debt across the UK already
stands at more than £160 billion and rising. Her own council’s
response to the consultation on SFT stated “PFI type procurement is
expensive, takes considerable time and is complex. The overall aim
of SFT to reduce these costs to the public sector is welcomed.”
The chronic state of our school buildings did
not happen overnight. It took many years of neglect.
Coincidentally, Lib Dems have been at the helm for a long time in
the Borders. The voters of the Borders will most certainly judge
Cllr Bhatia’s party on its lousy record. The real mystery is why
the Tories once again allowed the Lib Dems anywhere near our
schools.
Yours faithfully
Paul Wheelhouse
SNP Prospective Parliamentary Candidate,
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
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