Council to consider School Estate Review – and Semple raises A83 and tourism issues

Today’s (3rd March 2011) meeting of the full Argyll and Bute Council will address the Review of the School Estate, with Education Spokesperson, Ellen Morton, presenting her list of schools proposed for closure.

Councillors will be asked simply to note the detail, to note the work of the Argyll Rural Schools Network (ARSN) and to agree to the proposed pre-consultation period.

We note that the purpose of the pre-consultation period is clarified at the end of the Review paper where it notes that ‘The costs associated with the community impact pre consultation would be met within the existing Community Services Departmental budget’.

In relation to this, councillors will also be asked to note the actions suggested by the education team to ‘mitigate the inherent risks within the schools consultation process’. The relevant section of the review paper the council will be considering describes these actions as:

• ‘The Council should review its estate on an ongoing basis and reduce the scale of proposals to be considered at any one time’.
• ‘Specific pre consultation with communities on community impact to supplement the research based materials referenced in the earlier Argyll and Bute draft proposals’.
• ‘Prepare an explicit risk assessment for pupil transport which details and assesses all of the identified risks pertaining to a proposal, the mitigating actions by the authority and places the proposal in the context of current Council practices’.
• ‘Set out the consideration of viable alternatives in an options appraisal format rather than in text format to ensure there will be no confusion over what options have been considered and how these have been assessed by the Council’.
• ‘Present the financial savings in a spreadsheet format showing the detail of the current budgets and the detail of the new composite merged school budget (the saving being the difference between
  existing and proposed)’.
• A more formal approach to the (Community Services) review of the use of accommodation/ capacity will be delivered through the new circular (1.33) and the feedback will confirm schools’ use of accommodation and whether the occupancy model is being applied consistently and accurately’.
• ‘…to request Community Services bring forward review options annually in conjunction with
  the School Estate Strategy and Management Plan’.

Finally members will be asked ‘to request a further report commenting on the pre consultation feedback with recommendations regarding further statutory consultation’.

It is worth noting that a major positive development of the turbulent times at Argyll and Bute Council is that opposition councillors appear now to be working in a coordinated fashion and with a sense of teamwork.

They are to be commended for this; and it should produce a much more focused investigation of issues by the entire council.

Councillor Semple’s written question on A83

Councillor John Semple represents South Kintyre – an area with very god reason to be aware of the current extreme degradation of the A83, Argyll’s arterial road from Glasgow to Campbeltown.

Councillor Semple has therefore  put down a compound written question on the issue, to the Transport Spokesperson, Councillor Duncan MacIntyre, for responses at today’s meeting.

The text of the question is:

‘ For the Transport Spokesperson

‘The A83 between Campbeltown and Lochgilphead is causing a great deal of concern to a large number of my constituents. The road carries a lot of heavy goods Lorries transporting all the necessities of life into Kintyre and the Isles.  It is a life line route, there are no suitable alternatives.

‘There are a large number of timber haulage lorries, parcel transportation vans, bulk cattle feed lorries, deliveries to local shops and supermarkets, heavy cranes, gas and fuel tankers, caravan transporters, as well as heavy supply vehicles for the wind tower fabrication yard at Machrihanish. The speed limit is 60mph.

‘It is most notable that from Kennacraig Southward, where the road ceases to become the responsibility of Transport Scotland and becomes the responsibility of Argyll & Bute Council, that the condition of the road deteriorates most dramatically all the way to Campbeltown

‘If  Argyll and Bute has some of the worst maintained  A Roads in Scotland, then the A83 South of Kennacraig must be THE worst maintained  A Road in Argyll and Bute and therefore the worst road in Scotland.

‘Can I ask the Transport Spokesperson -

1. Does he recognise that the A83 South of Kennacraig is in an exceptionally poor condition?
2. Does he recognise that Scotland Transerve have accepted the significance of the A83 and over the last 3 years have scheduled major capital works, into that part of the road North of Kennacraig which is their responsibility, as a result?
3. Does he recognise that the A83 South of Kennacraig is now seriously in need of major maintenance and upgrade?
4. What steps will he be taking to see that Roads belonging to Argyll & Bute Council, like the A83, which are heavily used and severely under maintained, do not become death traps for my constituents as a result ?

For Argyll is working to establish the precise detail of the situation.

In whatever way responsibilities are defined and funded – or not – it creates unproductive room for each of Westminster, Holyrood and Argyll and Bute Council to claim that responsibility and funding issues are unclear and that that it requires action or intervention from the others to sort it out.

The result is stasis and a road outshone by dirt tracks in the Australian outback.

Councillor Semple is right to challenge on this. The A83 is Argyll’s most important road. Its current condition – particularly but not exclusively, south from Kennacraig, is fraught with danger and is well below unacceptable.

Until this situation is regularised, this road singly undermines (almost literally) any attempt at economic regeneration in the entire Kintyre peninsula.

Councillor Semple’s written question on tourism

Tourism development is a key focus for economic regeneration in Argyll.

There is, as yet, in any arena, no coherent policy for marketing Argyll, nor any strategic thinking worthy of the name on the framing and driving of such a policy, nor any substantial marketing activity recognisable as such.

This failure is incomprehensible, given Argyll’s mass of the richest possible resources germane to much of what should be a clear brand and a compelling marketing campaign – and given Argyll’s starvation of economic development.

A Tourism Summit for Argyll and the Isles, to be held in Oban on 31st March 2011 has raised concerns in some quarters that the summit may not be actively representative of all of the rich and disparate areas that characterise Arghyll and the Isles.

These concerns would seem to be at the heart of the South Kintyre councillor’s written question to the Spokesperson for Enterprise, Energy, Culture and Tourism, Councillor Neil Mackay.

The text of the question reads:

‘For Spokesperson for Enterprise, Energy, Culture and Tourism.

‘Following the announcement by The Spokesperson of an Argyll & Isles Tourism Summit to be held on the 31st of March, in Oban, the purpose of which is for the public sector agencies to learn from the industry what we can do to assist the industry.

Can the spokesperson tell me –

1. How will he ensure that the output from the summit is representative of the industry and market potential across Argyll & Bute? And not just Oban?
2. ‘What mechanisms will he use to ensure that businesses that depend on tourism from across Argyll & Bute will have the opportunity to input into any strategy which emerges from the summit?
3. ‘Will he ensure that a record is made of industry segments represented and where contributors do business, to be reported in the output of the summit?’

We will report on the outcomes of proceedings in due course.