Luing makes lobbying call before school decision day

Save our school campaigners on Luing are making a lobbying call for support before councillors decide its fate next week.

 

More than 40 islanders aged from three months old to 87 met at the school to send out a strong message - Save Our School.

 

Members of Argyll and Bute Council's community services committee gather on Thursday August 25 to decide what happens next to the building that was mothballed in November 2020.

 

"attachment_766135" "" "300"] Saving Luing School - more than 40 islanders turned out to send this message. KG_T33_saveourschoolluing02

 

A report from officers was due on Monday August 15 and will include the community's calls, collected at a big-turnout consultation event, to keep it open.

 

Island children currently have to travel off Luing to be taught at Easdale Primary School on neighbouring Seil, but this has triggered an official complaint about current journey arrangements that is now being investigated by council officers.

 

Under present council approved arrangements, pupils - some as young as four - can be picked up from home by a council mini-bus and taken to the ferry, the mini-bus driver will then walk them on and off the ferry before escorting them to the regular Oban-Easdale-Luing service bus at Cuan, that anyone can use. According to parents, the youngsters are then left by themselves on that bus unsupervised and without seatbelts to  make the rest of their way to school.

 

Worried about public bus-safety, parents are doing their own school-run.

 

Oban, Lorn and Isles councillors discussed the transport situation at a business meeting last week and are asking to see the risk assessment for it. They were concerned about how it works and particularly about pupils using the ferry slipways in severe weather.

 

Councillors Luna Martin and Julie Mckenzie had already flagged up concerns. Councillor Andrew Kain, who is the policy lead with responsibility for school transport, is now taking the matter up with officers.

 

Councillor Kieron Green has urged Luing community to formally express their continuing desire for their children to be educated at the primary school on Luing in the coming school year so it can be demonstrated that it is viable to reopen the school.

 

Campaigner Norman Bissell said: 'The issue of the health and safety of young Luing children having to travel daily on service buses without seat belts or adult supervision is a serious and urgent one, and requires a speedy solution which protects these young children from danger and does not force their parents to pay over £1,000 per annum on ferry and fuel costs in having to drive children to school themselves to safeguard them from danger.'

 

More than 30 new residents have come to live on Luing over the past three years, including five pre-school age children.

 

Mr Bissell is just one of a number of residents appealing direct to education bosses and councillors on the community services committee asking them to pledge their support to save Luing School.

 

'The obvious solution is to reopen Luing Primary School as soon as possible and, where necessary, to share educational provision and school minibus transport with Easdale Primary School which would avoid the serious travel dangers to children which officers' decisions have created,' he said.

 

Isle of Luing Community Trust says an island primary school is a key part of its plans to attract more working age families to live and work on the island, and to build a better future. 'We need  the school not just to be mothballed but open for use by local groups and kept in good condition, so that it could be quickly reopened when the pre-school children on the island reach school age and more families come to live here.  Argyll and Bute Council and The National Islands Plan have both been clear about their strong support for regeneration for the islands. Keeping Luing school available for future primary classes would be an important commitment to our island and our future,' said the trust's Colin Buchanan.

 

Community councillor Edwin Pickett added: 'The population on the Isle of Luing is increasing with many new and established families choosing to call this unique and beautiful island home. Closing the school will without a shadow of doubt deter the demographic we need desperately need to attract to maintain a healthy and balanced community.'

 

Former Luing School pupil Innes MacQueen, who works as a Gaelic development officer, said: 'The school on Luing has been a vital part of the community for many years and we really hope that it will be again in the future. With lots of changes on the island it would be appropriate to keep the school mothballed to access if there is a change of circumstances in the future, for example more families, to allow the school to reopen. Having a school located on the island is a lot more suitable and attractive for families rather than sending four and five-year-olds over on the ferry to attend school in Easdale.'

 

Jo Campbell's 11-year-old grandson Dylan was the last pupil at the school before it shut. She said: 'He was the last one left. He still misses it terribly and now he's at school at Kilninver  he misses out being able to play with his mainland friends after school. In my opinion, island schools should never close because the communities are always changing. Look at all the people who turned up today to send our message to the council, that's proof of how strong we feel.'

 

Young families says a school on the island would encourage even more to join them.

 

Rachel Cruickshanks remembers cycling to Luing school and loving lessons outdoors exploring the island which made her appreciate where she lived even more. She said. 'I've got lots of happy memories of Luing school and I hope other children will get the chance to make lots more.'

 

Mhairi Ritchie was chairman of Luing School Parent Council over a decade ago when the island last fought to keep it open - taking delegations to council HQ at Kilmory and lobbying outside the Labour Party conference at Oban's Corran Halls. 'We've got a strong community spirit on Luing. We hope to see it mothballed and  reopened. A lot of people here are still as passionate about saving our school as we were all those years ago. Those feelings cross the generations. A primary school should be the centre place of the community,' she said