Edward Mountain doubles down on allegation that Highland Council is ‘dysfunctional’
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MSP Edward Mountain has doubled down on his belief that Highland Council's education department is “dysfunctional” after the local authority questioned his claim that he had to wait 18 months to get access to Charleston Academy.
The Conservative MSP paid a visit to the Inverness school yesterday and said the conditions inside were worse than anything he had seen elsewhere and make attainment difficult.
The council responded this morning to a media inquiry with a spokesperson saying: “We understand a request was made on January 18, 2024 to visit Charleston Academy and Mr Mountain visited the school.”
The council said schools had been closed for Easter holidays since March 29 before moving to address Mr Mountain’s concerns about the lack of investment in Charleston.
The spokesperson continued: “Recently property reports have been taken to council on the management of the Highland Council’s assets and a report will be brought to council in May which proposes an investment plan to help address the condition of our large school estate.”
Mr Mountain hit back, saying: “I have been in communication with the education and learning department of Highland Council, since last year, regarding my concerns over being denied permission to visit schools.
“Given the council claim I have only requested a visit this year, it just goes to prove again how dysfunctional the education department really is.”
Charleston was one of a number of schools that were set for reconstruction before the council performed a last September when it said it could not fund the previously promised building programme.
Last month council leader Raymond Bremner said: “We need a major solution for our ageing school estate. With this in mind, we will be bringing a ground-breaking investment plan to the May [meeting of the full] Council, which will lay the foundation for the biggest improvements communities will have ever seen.”
He said then that he had written to cabinet secretary for education Jenny Gilruth who had earlier told the Scottish Parliament she would be “taking forward further engagement and collaboration” with Cosla – the umbrella group for councils – to address sub-standard schools.
The condition and suitability of Highland schools is significantly behind the national average, with just under 20 per cent rated "good" and 34 per cent rated "poor".
She had earlier said in the Scottish Parliament that she will be “taking forward further engagement and collaboration” with Cosla – the umbrella group for councils – to address the remaining sub-standard condition schools.
Highland Schools condition and suitability is significantly behind the national average of nearly 91 per cent as ‘Good’. In north it is just under 20 per cent; 34 per cent have an overall rating of ‘C-Poor’ and 37 per cent are rated as ‘C-Poor Suitability’.
Councillor Bremner said previously: “We have 200 schools across Highland. Despite a huge amount of investment in the school estate, the scale of the challenge is just too great for the Council to manage within its own resources, which is why the Council is keen to explore any and all opportunities to enhance the capital it has available for repair and refurbishment as well as wholescale replacement.”
