Parent accuses council of school cover-up

Excerpts from the August 16th edition of the Bishopbriggs Herald.

Call for private school meeting to be made public

Parent accuses council of school cover-up

"An irate parent is claiming East Dunbartonshire Council is covering up how the decision was made on where to site the new Bishopbriggs Academy."

The minutes of the 'private' meeting will not be made public until the end of 2006.

I contacted the council to clarify this...

They confirmed that inline with council procedure the minutes of council meetings are not made public until they have been passed at the next council meeting. This will take place on 28th September (four months from the last meeting).

If anyone questions the minute this may delay their publication further.

As the council said in their answer to me...

Perhaps that gap has given the wrong impression about publication of the minutes...

I totally agree... only the council can change that opinion.

Mr McMillan asked how much the consultations cost, this also goes unanswered.

Councillor Alex Hannah had this to say about the meeting...

"...the meeting was one of the most undemocratic he has ever taken part in."

"...we were given a book which had all the responses to the consultation in it, but that was put to one side and the only things discussed were the commercial benefits of either site."

"...I thought the opinions of the parents and community would be given equal weighting with the commercial benefits, but that didn't happen."

"...The overwhelming majority of public opinion was against the move to the Thomas Muir site, but those views were given no consideration"

See this post

The vote on where to site Bishopbriggs Academy was split 12 votes for and 12 votes against.

The Provost holds the casting vote and voted with her Lib Dem councillors to built the school on the Thomas Muir site.
Thus allowed the project to be completed in two years, another commercial consideration?

The reason for the 'private' meeting was given as commercial sensitivity regarding the preferred bidder.

As this is now in the public domain I can see no reason for all 'non financial' information from the minutes to be published.

Contact your councillor and ask why you cannot see the minutes until the end of the year.

Their details are here .