Douglas Alexander MP

Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South

Paisley Daily Express Column - 10 Feb 2010

WALK WITH PARENTS PROVES RISK TO PUPILS
 
At eight o’clock on Monday mornings I’m usually on my way to work. Yet last Monday, at eight o’clock I was on my way to school!
 
At the invitation of local Johnstone parents, as the local MP, I joined them and their children in Houston Square, Johnstone. Together we walked the route Council bosses now want their children to walk to St Benedict’s High School in Linwood.
 
Together we were protesting against the proposals made by the leadership of Renfrwewshire Council to change the qualifying distance for those needing school transport.
 
Schools all across Renfrewshire will be affected by this school transport cuts plan. There is particular anger, however, over the impact of these proposed cuts at St Benedict’s.
 
Not only is it a long way for children to be expected to walk on dark winter mornings and dark winter afternoons, anger is also boiling about the safety of the route pupils would be expected to walk.
 
The safe route to school for St Benedict’s was a concern when the school site was initially suggested, but the then Labour led Council was able to assure parents that they would provide school transport to the new campus.
 
Now the SNP led Council have torn up that understanding – and the fury amongst local parents was obvious on Monday morning.
 
As we walked the proposed route we wondered aloud whether the Council bosses had ever actually done the same – and seen for themselves the hazards causing parents such concern. They should leave their Cotton Street offices and do what we did and maybe then they’d begin to see the impact of their cuts to education budgets.
 
Already they have closed South Primary School. Already they have cut the budgets of not just St Benedict’s, but also Castlehead High, Johnstone High and St Andrew’s Academy.
 
Already, they have slashed teacher numbers and driven down pupil teacher ratios in Renfrewshire. Now they are determined, apparently, to make these youngsters walk long distances even to get to school.
 
These cuts are a direct result of decisions reached by the SNP leadership of the Council. This year the Scottish Government – which provides a significant proportion of the Council’s funds – got its largest ever settlement from the UK Government.
 
It’s clear, however, as Scotland’s teacher crisis shows, that education is not the priority of the party in power in Holyrood or Cotton Street.
 
Now the price is being paid by parents and pupils across Renfrewshire. As our protest in Johnstone on Monday showed, local children deserve better. Let’s hope the Council leaders will think again before they make their final decision in August this year. That’s the outcome I’ll be working for, as the local MP, in the months ahead.