row over £15m for new museum and gallery
Call for schools to come before arts projects
Published:
Demands for Highland Council to repair crumbling schools before investing £15million in a new museum and art gallery in Inverness have exposed further splits in the ruling independent-SNP coalition.
One committee chairman defended spending on the arts, saying it was an investment in tourism that would reap dividends and, in the long term, benefit the authority’s schools budget.
However, calling for a freeze on arts projects, independent Black Isle councillor Billy Barclay said: “Scrap all that and concentrate on tackling our dilapidated schools. There are schools all over the place falling down due to lack of investment.
“Everything may be rosy in Inverness, but is it in the rest of the Highlands?”
Inverness area councillor Roddy Balfour, who was ousted as education chairman for condemning the largely publicly funded £22.7million Eden Court Theatre refurbishment, drew parallels with the current spending dilemma.
“Eden Court was an unnecessary expenditure when you’re faced with a crisis in school building funding,” he said. “There should be no more spending on the arts and all this nonsense.”
He added that the museum and gallery were a waste of money.
Fellow independent Isobel McCallum, who inspected Highland schools last year, put the repairs on a par with the essential road improvements she said dominated the last election.
“I think we have to distinguish between luxuries and necessities – and schools and roads are necessities,” she said. “However, I think there has to be a balance because we have a big income from tourism.”
Acknowledging the challenges ahead, education chairman Bill Fernie said: “Some schools are in a huge state of dilapidation. There is no doubt about that.”
He added: “I’ve got one in my own patch, Wick High School, which is not in a great condition. But the council’s got responsibilities for a wide range of services and it’s all too easy for people to say they’ll grab one section of a particular budget to spend on something else. That’s a very short-term view of things.”
Mr Fernie said arts investment would reap dividends in the long term by attracting people to the live in the Highlands and they would then contribute to the tax system. This money could then be invested in schools.
Wick High School’s parent council has invited parents of its 860 pupils to witness conditions for themselves at an open night on April 22 amid growing concerns about asbestos issues, rusting radiators, leaking pipes and faulty heating.
Highland Council has no plans to replace the school, which is ranked fifth in the authority’s £1million-a-year refurbishment programme.
Public spending watchdog Audit Scotland reported last week that 1,000 schools, a third of the country’s total, were in a poor state.
