Spat brewing over distance to school policy

The council’s Lib Dem and Tory joint administration passed controversial plans to retain distance between home and school as a criteria for deciding placement when a school is oversubscribed.

SNP councillors, citing concerns raised during a public consultation, sought removal of the clause as they felt it could create a “postcode lottery”.

While the education committee agreed to add criteria relating to length of residence and attendance at a local primary, the distance element was retained.

SNP group leader Cllr Gordan Low said: “In our opinion, distance is not an appropriate factor to consider for pupils living within a school’s catchment area, and should have no place within the admissions policy.

“The council should have been prepared to drop distance and put out a revised policy for further consultation.

“Instead I fear the new policy could cause uncertainty for families and adversely affect local communities, by creating an uneven and unequal patchwork of school entitlement.

Councillor Vaughan Moody, the council’s co-leader, commented: ”Cllr Low and his SNP group appear to have had defective hearing at the meeting.

”They appear not to have noticed that this paper received cross-party support.

”And Cllr Low seems not to have heard officers say that the distance criteria now being at the very bottom of the list meant that it would rarely, if ever, be used.”