Friday, September 12, 2008

NOW IT'S SOUTH PRIMARY NO MORE AND LAGOON ICE RINK NO MORE BY THE SNP.

Yesterday I wrote about a meeting where the nationalists were in an absolutely foul mood. Mild
mannered Cllr. Mackay screeching like a fish wife, Cllr. Cameron refusing to take part even as education convener when an amendment on education was moved, Cllr. Nicolson casting himself as the “Vigilante Man” (the Travellers must be trembling) and Cllr. McFee displaying his Mr. Nasty credentials by using the Phrase “final solution” when speaking about Travelling People, just like the Cllr. McFee of old before he sailed in to the ’Bermuda Triangle’ that for him was Holyrood. What is going on I asked, well.

This morning bright and early one day after the full council we had some board papers delivered and they contained the following :-
Education Item 6 (a) a glowing report from HMIe on the South Primary School it was a great report, one of the best that I have seen on a Renfrewshire School, well done to them you might think eh ? Well no actually.

Education Item 7 the very next item, on the same board papers. “Proposals for the closure of South Primary School” no I am not making this up you can read it for yourself on the council web site. They are going to close the school that has just received one of the best reports ever seen, no wonder Cllr. Cameron had abandoned her usual sunny disposition, no one likes being humiliated.

Community and Family Care Board Item 16, a report stating that the Lagoon Ice Rink would not reopen they have abandoned the fight to restore the ice to the Lagoon, This is one of the main items that the SNP campaigned on and criticised Labour over non stop, the ’Bravehearts have thrown in the tartan towel again. Libraries, Nurseries, Area Offices, Elderly Wardens, Public Conveniences, savage education cuts and now School closures and closure of the Ice Rink. The unemployed probationary teachers must be ready to give up when they realize that the teachers from this primary are about to leap over them in the queue for jobs, is it possible to find a worse administration ?

Come on now wouldn’t your face be tripping you as well sitting there knowing this would break the next day, unless they didn’t know of course, but if they knew and held it back until after the meeting that would be dishonest would it not ? They were scowling in anticipation of the imminent undignified humbling and, wait for it folks there is more to come, that’s a promise. Not an SNP promise, this one will happen.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cllr Kelly, What a bunch of spivs, every last one of them, only Cllr McKay would have the bottle to carry out business in this fashion, I don't know why it's taken the Labour Party so long in Renfrewshire to see through his facade of "American Apple Pie & Cotton Candy". At least the Labour Party have learned a real hard lesson over the last couple of days, no more Paisley Ice Rink, in opposition, SNP "Thats terrible" when in power " that's fine". South School in opposition" we will never allow this school to close" in power "it's closing get used to it" or as the Education convenor says " us yeins are telling usse yens thote schull is clusin".

Cllr Kelly how does it feel to be proved right once again.

P.s I bet we get a response from one of Mckays spivs kidding on that they are a member of the public and saying how bad you and the Labour Party are, lets see how long it takes.......

Anonymous said...

Terry.

Love you web site, keep up the god work, can I ask you a question, I saw a picture of Cllr Derek McKAY in last weeks Sunday Post, has he gone to spec savers?

Anonymous said...

Terry instead of wasting good blog space talking about the S.N.P., can you give us your thoughts and opinions on Iain Gray, as the uninitiated amongst us,(me) know very little about him except what Iv read in the press over the last few days.

Anonymous said...

I am shocked and stunned that the SNP Administration are thinging of closing the south school, it will please you to know that the parents will not take this sitting down, the SNP will not get re-elected in this part of Paisley South. I hope Cllr Mitcheal will explain to his constituents as to why he is voting for this barbaric act.

Where is the money going, I drove through Renfrew town centre last week and found out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. It is clear to us that Renfrew town centre is having money poured into it, does the leader of the Counicl stay in Renfrew? I wonder.

Mr Kelly I am new toi this sort of malarky but thanks for your efforts, you are clearly not as bad as the SNP and press say you are.

Thanks again.

Moira & family.
Parent South School

Anonymous said...

As a parent I would be happy to see this school close. Its role has been falling for the last few years. Its only ONE THIRD FULL. Ive just looked up the Council reports and it seems you have been spending over £1200 more per pupil here than at other schools. I have to wonder why. Perhaps a job for the auditors or the police !

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(Anonymous) 13/09/08

Cllr. Mackay has no bottle at all, he bears the imprint of the last council officer to sit on him.

You can usually tell when it’s an SNP comment, they don’t have the courage to put their name on it.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(Anonymous) 13/09/08

I believe he has started to wear specs. An attempt at gravitas perhaps, or maybe an attempt to shed his nickname of “The Boay Mackay”

He seems destined to be remembered as “The Right Wing Butcher Mackay”

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(Martin J) 14/09/08

He’s been around for a reasonable time, close to Gordon Brown , which is good, enjoys a reputation as a diligent politician, which is good, a very able intellect, which is good, he has a lot of experience within politics and in other aspects of his life which is also good.

I have only met him once at a conference where we shared a table and I found him interesting and good company.

I did not vote for him but, he will now enjoy my complete support.

There will now be obvious parallels between Brown and Gray as serious politicians and Salmond (the spiv) and Cameron the second hand car salesman.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(Anonymous) 09:38

Thank you for your comments. Mark my words there are a lot more cuts to come.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(Anonymous) 13:32

It’s about 27 Years since my first child went to school and I have been involved since then in school matters and I have never heard a single parent, not one, say that they support the closure of their child’s school, I can only conclude that you are a liar or to put it another way you are SNP.

Looking at your reference to the cost of educating children here confirms my suspicion of you as SNP. They are well known for knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Anonymous said...

Terry,

Some facts from the said paper that you have chosen not to tell people.

South Side primary School is grossly underused.

It runs at 35.8% of its capacity.
The Renfewshire average is 72%.
the cost per pupil is 38% higher tha the authority average @ £4445 per pupil against £3220 per pupil.

This is surely a huge waste of tax payers money and not even an idiot like you could justify this.

50% of the pupils at Southside Primary School do not even come from the school's catchment area. eh?

The three surrounding schools operate at far higher efficiency and yet each one of them could accomodate all of the pupils at Southside, howwever, the proposal recognises that this might not be the most practical solution.

As a Renfrewshire council tax payer, I am delighted to see that the council have recognised this huge inefficiency and are tackling this issue whilst ensuring that all pupils are relocated very nearby. This is surely forward thinking.

Anonymous said...

Terry,

There are 32 council regions in Scotland and yet only 7 council regions have ice rinks.

Why is it that you feel that Renfrewshire needs 2 ice rinks?

Anonymous said...

Terry,
Is or has Martin J been on the drink, he says "why are you talking up good blog space talking about the SNP when you could be talking about Labour Leader Ian Gray". What has the Labour Leader got to do with the SNP closing schools, closing the Paisley Ice rink, the SNP betrays the people of Paisley again, me thinks Martin J is having a laugh, so stop this nonsense and let’s get back to the real issues which affect the people of Paisley.

Not where the Labour leader buys his aftershave.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(mairi) 14/09/08
Mairi only an idiot like you or more likely a partisan liar like you would overlook the fact that item 6 (a) on the agenda shows clearly that this closure is not being carried out for the benefit of the pupils education.

It’s cost cutting, money first children second.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(Alan) 11:06

You clearly know nothing about the provision of the ice rink. Over the years that the rink was there it gained many devotees and hockey teams, ice dancers etc, these numbers have dwindled and if you contact them you will be told that Braehead is not the answer, it can’t accommodate large parts of Glasgow and all of Renfrewshire in a time of growing sports participation.

The SNP were constantly criticising Labour for not finding funds to repair the ice, their answer is to close it, a cruel deception on the people of Renfrewshire but typical.

Anonymous said...

Actually Braehead has 2 Ice Rinks, the large Arena, a far better venue than the old Lagoon, AND a six lane curling rink (it's tucked away near the food hall). Well worth a visit - nice cafe bar great view of the river.

So I would never be tempted back to the Lagoon even if it were repaired.

Anonymous said...

Cllr Kelly, obviously no one has really looked at the facts of the South Primary Closure Report - It states that the School has a capacity of 302 impossible they took away over one fifth of the school to house a nursery which is not mentioned is their report - therefore that would then allow in reckoning 8 bases to teach approximately 160-200 pupils. The school roll has fallen in the last few years as they built a seven primary Toldholm School which always fed into South Primary every year at primary 4-in the report it shows clearly the loss in the opening year of Todholm.

The Government want class sizes of between 19-23 approx. this school is averaging 20 per class - has anyone worked out how much extra it would cost if Todholm/Lochfield or West Primaries were to teach classes of this size - I would reckon we would be around the £1200 per child mark extra! Smaller Class Sizes - A FARCE!

I could go on but will leave that for the Education Board Consultaion where we all know these are questions they can not sorry will not reply to.

Vice Chair of Parent Council of South Primary

Anonymous said...

So you clearly think it is ok to run a school that is two-thirds empty and that has half of its pupils existing pupils coming from outside its catchment area.

You would probably be happy to keep the school open for one pupil if it gave you an opposed view to a council decision.

Who loses out here Terry.

All pupils can be accomodated in the nearby schools which will let these schools operate at an even higher efficiency and all teachers will be relocated.

The council taxpayer saves money. Do you believe that the council should be using taxpayers money efficiently?

I think you are one of the old labour councillors who would happily sit and throw money down the drain for no effective reason.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(Anonymous) 15/09/08

By the end of 19 08 the hockey teams and ice dancers will have been excluded from the Braehead Ice Facilities for 6 months, the SNP maintain there is enough provision at Braehead, you wouldn’t be SNP would you ? Have you no shame ?

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(Anonymous) 15/09/08

The SNP promise on class sizes was an outright lie, it was an election bribe which they had no intention of keeping.

The HMIe report on South Primary at item 6(a) tells us that the school is one of the best performing in Renfrewshire and Item 7 on the same agenda tells us the school is to be closed.

This can only mean that the reason for it’s closure is not to improve the education facilities for these children, it is purely a cost saving exercise nothing to do with improving provision.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(mairi) 16/09/08

“Who loses out here Terry”

Read item 6(a) of the HMIe report on the school and you will see who is about to lose out, the children of South Primary are the ones who will lose out.

What is clear about you is that you are prepared to try to justify anything that the SNP do, you are like a bull in a china shop.

Anonymous said...

I think the most important issue here is that the school is in very much in use and should not be victims of the SNP throwing their weight around! One problem according to them is that there are not enough pupils for the capacity - I suggest they downsize then, they will not only save precious money (their one and ONLY concern here), but it is common snese that smaller classrooms make for better learning.

What an disorganised bunch they are.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

(anon84) 16/09/08

The arguments for downsizing or lower class sizes or the school being very much in use are now irrelevant. The fact is the SNP neither have the intelligence, experience or courage to stand against the council officer.

The council is officer led, the SNP take orders from them, that’s all.