Caithness councillors launch attack over state of high school
Claims that the premises could be breaking the law
Published:
CAITHNESS councillors used yesterday’s Highland Council education, culture and sport meeting to make their feelings felt about the poor state of Wick High School.
Councillor Robert Coghill branded the school “a dump”, while Councillor Katrina MacNab said she will approach the Health and Safety Executive to ask them to examine if the school building is breaking the law.
She said: “We have a school building which has new windows which don’t open, heating which, when it works, can’t be controlled, a lack of storage space and a swimming pool that is almost unusable because few of the filters are working. The maths block is three stories high, but it has windows which open so wide the children could fall out of them.
“There are no social areas, and 860 kids have nowhere to go when it rains.
“There is one working toilet for over 400 boys and two toilets for over 400 girls.
“There was no heating for two weeks in November, and children came to school with extra clothes and gloves,” she said.
Councillor MacNab said that the education officials were well aware of the problems, but had done nothing about them for years.
She said: “There was a report done in 2004, with recommendations for improvement, but that has never been done.
“A report in 2005 said £31million would be required to bring Caithness schools up to a reasonable standard. But there is only £1million available for school refurbishment.
“I’m going to write to Health and Safety and ask them to visit the school so that they can satisfy me that it is in good condition for children to study there and for teachers to be working in it.”
Councillor David Flear attacked education chairman Bill Fernie, also a Caithness councillor, for not ensuring that the school was upgraded.
He said: “If this had been a privately-owned building, we would have condemned it.
“You are a Wick councillor, and you should be speaking out about it.
“We have a socio-economic disaster on our doorstep because, with the closure of Dounreay, we will lose 2,500 jobs.
“Highland Council assured us they would give us the infrastructure, including schools to attract inward investment.”
Mr Fernie said they had to have some means of dealing with the problems they had with schools, because there were a number in the same condition.
Hugh Fraser, the director of education, culture and sport, said that school rolls had to be taken into account to give full information on investment decisions.
