Public to see plans for Bishopbriggs Town Centre

New Bishopbriggs Town Centre Plans...

A Public exhibition will take place on Friday 6 March between 10am-2pm and on Saturday 7 March between 10am-1pm in Bishopbriggs Library.

Builder pulls out of plans to build homes on Bishopbriggs High School site..

Plans for the Bishopbriggs High Schools site suffered a blow when Mactaggart and Mickel withdrew their application to build 154 homes on the high school site.

East Dunbartornshire Council are waiting to see the new 'masterplan' for the whole site as requested by the council. Fears of local residents that the sports hall, built with £1 million of public funds, may not survive the plan.

Read the rest of this blog to find out the history of the Council's decision to go against public consultation and move the school to the site of Turnbull High on the outskirts of Bishopbriggs...

Delay fears over Bishopbriggs Academy build...

Parents and pupils in East Dunbartonshire face serious disruption this year after a huge private sector project to build six new secondary schools has been hit by delays.

SNP MSP Gil Paterson claims the completion of the major private finance project could be delayed by several months and could also end up with losses to the public purse because of possible compensation wrangles.

The council admits that there is a problem but says suggestions that delays could run into several months are simply speculation on the part of the MSP.
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Mr Paterson claims that Bearsden Academy, Douglas Academy, Kirkintilloch High, Bishopbriggs Academy, St Ninian's High and Turnbull High will not be ready on their scheduled dates this year of between April and summer and that they could be up to six months late. He is concerned about disruption for pupils, particularly for those who are sitting Standard Grades and Highers should the schools be completed late.

Read full Herald story here...

Bishopbriggs Academy second bottom of East Dunbartonshire schools

In a comprehensive guide to Scottish schools performance, in today's Herald, Bishopbriggs Academy is second from bottom of the East Dunbartonshire table.



Only Kirkintilloch had poorer results.

Bishopbriggs Academy is the product of the amalgamation of Bishopbriggs High School and Thomas Muir High School. Read the rest of this blog then decide if this amalgamation was for the benefit of pupils or the council...

To determine the Herald "league tables", they took the benchmark figures used by employers and universities – the percentage of pupils passing five or more Highers at grades A to C by the end of S5.

On the BBC website the 2002 results are below.

Bishopbriggs High School are second top of this table - Thomas Muir is second bottom.



Check all the results on the Herald website here...

The sinister truth about what they do with our children's fingerprints - Daily Mail

From the Daily Mail here...

They point out that no other country in Europe routinely fingerprints children and that even communist China has abandoned plans for fingerprinting school pupils because it breaches human rights.

They quote the Minister for Schools and Learning, Jim Knight, who this summer admitted that the police can simply help themselves to the children's fingerprints if they are trying to solve a crime.

As one IT security consultant in Britain, Brian Drury, said recently: "If a child has never touched a fingerprint scanner, there is zero probability of being incorrectly investigated for a crime.

"Once a child has touched a scanner they will be at the mercy of the algorithm [stored in the school computer] for the rest of their lives."

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More on the Leave Them Kids Alone website...

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Read what the BBC have to say....

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How to fool school fingerprint scanners with household items...

Fake finger fools fingerprint reader...

Moulding plastic, jelly, milk and tea are all the ingredients that Dialogue Box needed to get past one biometric security device.

View the video here at ZDnet...

Council to fingerprint Bishopbriggs Academy schoolchildren

More than 8000 pupils are to have their fingerprints taken so they can be tracked by teachers.

The scheme is to be introduced in all eight secondary schools across East Dunbartonshire, including Bishopbriggs Academy.

Similar systems already installed in schools in England cost up to £20,000 per school.

From the register

As many as 200,000 primary and high school children from the age of seven have already been finger printed. Supplier Micro Librarian Systems estimates that its technology, which is similar to identification systems used in US prisons and by the German military, is in use by 350 schools throughout the country.

More here...

The Sunday Mail

Milngavie Herald

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No Profit in PFI changes warning

Carillion warns Scotland over PFI changes

Construction giant Carillion has warned Scotland against pressing ahead with plans to replace the traditional private finance initiative with a non-profit making model.

Robin Herzberg, managing director of Carillion’s private finance division, told the construction press that the new approach “doesn’t sound very attractive”.

The proposals as they stand would not interest a profit-making firm like Carillion, he said.

Longer term, Scotland’s ruling Scottish Nationalist Party wants to ditch PFI in favour of the Scottish Futures Trust, a non-profit making company that would funnel private investment into state projects.

From: Public Private Finance

Government slammed on schools

Latest view on PPP schools...

The Scottish Government's school building plans have come under fire, with Labour branding their absence of clear spending plans an "outrage".
The Tories claimed that the SNP administration's plans to replace PPP with a Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) have so far resulted in "confusion and uncertainty".

MSPs were debating the issue in Parliament after the Nationalists had pledged to match existing school building programmes "brick for brick" going into last year's election.

But Labour's shadow education secretary Rhona Brankin, herself a former teacher, said that the party had built or refurbished 328 schools during its eight years in power with the Liberal Democrats.

She said: "We have heard nothing, not one brass farthing has the SNP said they are going to spend on school building programmes and that's frankly an outrage."

Source: Midlothian Advertiser

Hidden £65m PPP Schools bill

Surprise, Surprise...

Ministers claim they have inherited a hidden £65m liability for privately-financed school projects that the previous Labour-LibDem administration failed to budget for in full.

...by 2010-11 will be £165m as the true cost of the exponential rise in the value contracts has become clear.

These were only £17m last year but leapt to £48m this year before reaching £137m next year and a total of £165m by the final year of this parliament, all for projects that have already been built, are under construction, or have been approved.

More from The Herald

Never mind, just think of the money the council will get from selling the Bishopbriggs High School site plus the 'surplus' land at Thomas Muir and Turnbull.

Parents meeting for Bishopbriggs Academy

Forthcoming meeting on Monday 17th September at 7.45pm where parents can get an update about the latest plans for Bishopbriggs Academy from the council's PPP team.

Bishopbriggs High Site

This site is not suitable for a school!

Jo Swinson and the Lib-Dems are asking the people of Bishopbriggs what they would like on the Bishopbriggs High School site.

None of the options include a school - exactly what the people agreed to the first time the Lib-Dems asked!

What's the point if their opinion is to be ignored as previous?

PPP deals cost Scots £22bn

Scots will have to pay a "phenomenal" £22.3bn over the next four decades to fund all the Public Private Partnership projects across the country - around £4500 for every Scot.

New figures released by the Scottish Executive have revealed the true cost of the 102 contracts for the privately built schools, prisons and hospitals which, in some cases, will be privately run.

The PPP statistics highlight the legacy of taxpayer debt the new SNP executive has inherited from the previous administration.

Professor Allyson Pollock, head of the Centre for International Public Health Policy at Edinburgh University, said: "This is a phenomenal amount of debt being incurred and stored up, not only for this generation but for future generations too. Others have noted the ways in which we are mortgaging our children's futures.



"The high costs of PFI squeezes expenditure on public services spending. In health, there is very good research evidence of the ways in which PFI drains money from public services and as a result services are cut and closed to pay the PFI charges and profits of the banks and shareholders."

A spokesman for the Scottish Labour Party said: "When you break it down it is good value for money."

From The herald

SNP promised platform extension at Bishopbriggs

In April the Evening Times report this SNP promise...

£300m promise on rail network

The SNP's National Rail Improvement Plan are proposals for platform extensions at Queen Street and Bishopbriggs to allow increased capacity

Read the story in the Evening Times

Single Transferable Voting...

Here's how STV works...

Two of the three LibDems were placed fourth (only three members per ward elected) in the 1st preference votes and they secured seats.

On the Council website they have published the 1st preference votes for each candidate.

Vaughan Moody, (1094) polled over TWO HUNDRED LESS 1st votes than Majinder Shergill (1305) and still secured a seat.

Duncan Cumming, (981) polled over ONE HUNDRED LESS 1st votes than Ali Syed (1082) and still secured a seat.

The results are here

Democracy in action.

LibDem take a beating...

The LibDems, who voted for the 'cheaper option', for Bishopbriggs Academy have been wiped off the face of the new council at East Dunbartonshire.

They could ignore the public when it came to consultation but they couldn't when it came to voting for their job.

East Dunbartonshire Liberal Democrates on May 4th 2007

John Morrison (Council Leader) - Gone
Margaret McNaughton - Gone
Gordon Macdonald - Gone
Fiona Risk - Gone
Pat Steel (provost) - Gone
Julia Southcott - Gone
Robert Duncan - Gone
Fiona Callison - Gone
Cathy McInnes - Gone
Eric Gotts - Survived
Duncan Cummings - Survived
Vaughan Moody - Survived

Of the Twelve LibDem councillors only three survived the rest were wiped out by the voters.

Cathy McInnes who came fifth out of six candidates for the Strathkelvin and Bearsden seat took a double beating.

The results can be found here Strathkelvin and Bearsden


And the council results here

Jo Swinson - take note

Kirky Herald Lib Dems Binned

Bats at St Ninian's

I understand that St Ninian's cannot be demolished as bats have been found.

Will this delay the Academy - only time will tell....

We get what we deserve...

The people of Bishopbriggs will get what they deserve after the elections in May.

Legislation states that when two schools amalgamate an election for a new school board should take place as soon as possible.

Almost NINE MONTHS later we are still waiting.

It also states that each candidate should produce UP TO 250 words presenting their case. Yet Ken Low produces more and that is accepted.

Read this site and then decide if these people are representing your interests....

I will not be updating it in the future - you get what you deserve....

Prisoners treated better than our children?

Dr Gordon Low wrote a letter to the Bishopbriggs Herald highlighting the way the Council have treated our children compared to how prisoners at Low Moss prison are treated.

During last year's public inquiry into the proposed new prison at Low Moss, Scottish Prison Service (SPS) were at pains to stress the urgency of building prisons to meet the rising prisoner population.
So it's a bit surprising now to find that they can manage quite happily for the next two years with one fewer prison. (Bishopbriggs Herald, 28th February)
But then, the SPS would tell us that they're seeking to accommodate twice the number of inmates in a state-of-the-art complex, complete with its own dedicated sports facilities and requiring the flexibility afforded by the utilisation of the whole available site.
So presumably the site has to be cleared before building work can begin, as trying to construct the new prison round the existing buildings would hopelessly compromise the design.
And of course, the SPS would probably consider it unreasonable to expect prisoners to have to live in a building site for two years.
Fair enough, perhaps. Yet it does seem just a bit ironic that the latter approach is exactly the construction methodology being employed by East Dunbartonshire Council to accommodate twice the school role at the new Bishopbriggs Academy, and with exactly the consequences the SPS are avoiding at Low Moss.
And that's before the council sells off part of the school site to the developers.
It wouldn't be good enough for the prisoners (and who would argue the point?) but apparently it's good enough for our school pupils.

Schools project to be sold off?

Schools contracts may be up for grabs in Amec sell-off.

It could be the first of many sell off by chief executive Samir Brikho, the Swedish-Lebanese businessman who runs the company.

Samir may sell businesses involved in building and facilities services and focus the company on core areas such as oil and gas, minerals and metals mining and the nuclear and wind energy industries.

He added that plans were already in place for significant cost savings.

Read the full story here in The Sunday Herald

Maybe they think the SNP will win in May...