Strike loses Coll pupils two school days with Oban hostel 24-hour closure

Secondary pupils from Argyll’s Isle of Coll have lost two school days over the twenty-four hour local authority workers’ strike on Wednesday. Glencruitten Hostel in Oban, which accommodates them during the week in term time, enabling them to attend Oban High School, told their parents only twenty-fours ahead, that they would be closed for the period. There is anger that the hostel knew the position seven days earlier but only gave parents notice at the last minute. Obviously there was no time to make alternative accommodation arrangements in the time available and the ferry to Coll does not run every day – so the Coll pupils lost two days school. The situation underlines the way every aspect of island life is on the edge of the possible all the time.