Border Telegraph | News | Parents' fury over council's £3000 park bench

Saturday, 17th May, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 19th March, 2008 10:00

Parents' fury over council's £3000 park bench

By Ally McGilvray

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CASH-strapped council chiefs have been branded clueless after spending thousands of pounds on a park bench while slashing school budgets.

Scottish Borders Council spent £3000 on the new seating area in Galashiels which was unveiled this week.

However, parents who last week told the Border Telegraph they feared their children may be forced to take their own toilet rolls into school as budget-bursting cuts threaten to catch many short, believe the local authority could have sat on the money which they feel could have been better spent.

One concerned mum – who did not wish to be named – said: “It looks stupid and the council are stupid for putting it there.

“With many schools being warned they will have little or no money to spend this year, it would have made more sense to invest it in our children’s education.”

The council revealed the cost of the bench at a meeting of the local authority’s Eildon area committee in the Burgh Chambers on Monday night.

It sits off the town’s Old Abbotsford Road – just yards from the town’s public park.

The mum added: “There is no need for a seat so close to one of the town’s biggest parks. It’s a disgrace.”

The council said the money for the new seating area came out of the SB Local, revenue and capital works fund - a separate budget from the school funds - and pointed out the money had to be spent before the end of the financial year.

Meanwhile, local parents demanding a meeting with education officials to discuss concerns over school budgets for the coming year have been told they had their chance to air their grievances at a meeting last month – before the budget was announced.

A council spokesperson said: “A meeting was held for all parent councils on February 13 to discuss the budget. The parent councils for all schools in the Borders were also invited to attend one of three meetings with the director, Glenn Rodger, this week.”

Council chiefs are targeting a two per cent cut in the devolved school management fund in a bid to save £874,000 to plug a funding gap.

That means an average primary school head-teacher with an annual budget of £300,000 is being forced to find savings of £6000. But, after paying for staff, heating and other fixed costs, they are only left with a budget of around £6500 – leaving them with £500 to spend on everything else from toilet rolls to jotters for the rest of the year.

But the education authority has denied concerns that children’s education will be affected.

Councillor Sandy Aitchison, of the Borders Party, said: “The reality is that every school in the Borders is going to suffer cuts.

“This means reduction in staff time, cutting courses in higher education in secondary schools, problems of covering for staff illness and training breaks, lack of supervision of tutorial time, larger class sizes and this will affect every pupil in every school.

“It is also significant that I have been contacted by a school where they cannot afford lined paper jotters.”

He added: “If, as is being suggested, there are false figures out there, then this shows mismanagement on the part of SBC in that the school budgets should have been calculated before the budget debate.”

Schools are expected to learn how much money they will have to spend for the coming year when their budgets are unveiled next week.

Mr Rodger said: “I don’t for one moment under-estimate the challenge that this presents, but the reality is that we are only now finalising budgets for individual schools. Working with schools, our business support team have been able to identify potential areas for savings that will help schools meet their individual targets.

“Many schools are also choosing to use part of their DSM carry forward budgets (money saved from previous years) to assist them at this time.”

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