Scottish Borders Local Association

Councillor faces complaint after rubbishing SNP over schools

Published Date: 05 March 2009

Andrew Keddie

A FURIOUS row erupted at last week's meeting of Scottish Borders Council when the executive member for education accused the SNP government at Holyrood of "letting down the children of the Borders".
But it was not just Councillor Catriona Bhatia’s political rhetoric that angered her opposition rival John Mitchell (SNP, Galashiels), who had tabled a question about the crumbling state of Kelso High School.

She also suggested that an “Edinburgh-based list MSP” – and not Mr Mitchell – had written the question.

The less-than-veiled allusion to SNP MP Christine Grahame infuriated Mr Mitchell. “That is ridiculous ... I wrote the question myself.”

Although Ms Bhatia indicated she was prepared to withdraw the comment, Mr Mitchell confirmed this week he had lodged an official internal complaint over her behaviour, saying: “What I got in response to a serious question was just a diatribe against the Scottish Government and a personal attack on an MSP,” said Mr Mitchell.

“That is simply not acceptable from the elected member responsible for our schools.”

At the meeting, Mr Mitchell referred to a recent article in Scotland on Sunday regarding what that newspaper described as “a display of pupil power that will have them quaking in their boots in the town hall”.

Mr Mitchell went on: “The pupils are appalled at the crumbling state of Kelso High. A local Tory MSP [John Lamont] said pupils were being ‘let down’ by their building and presumably, by extension, by their Tory-led council.

“Given the condition of the school ... has information been received yet as to the main problem areas; have local councillors raised concerns with the education executive; and what action has been taken by the executive member [Mrs Bhatia] to ensure the allegedly dilapidated school is improved?”

Mrs Bhatia said she was glad Mr Mitchell had asked “this very important question”.

“I can confirm all the local councillors in the Kelso area have spoken with me about issues at Kelso High – which is in stark contrast to Mr Mitchell, who has not sought to directly discuss with me the very pressing issue of the need to renew and/or improve the primaries and secondaries in his own ward of Galashiels.”

Mrs Bhatia hailed the opening of the first three new high schools for over 40 years – at Duns, Eyemouth and Earlston – which had been made possible by funding allocated by the previous Lib Dem/ Labour executive at Holyrood.

“These new facilities are exactly what the Lib Dem/Conservative/ Independent administration on this council aspires to for all its communities.

“While the teaching staff at Kelso High do an excellent job, there is no doubt they do so without the advantages of a 21st-century building. That does not mean the current building is ‘dilapidated’ and I am amazed at Mr Mitchell’s choice of emotive and inflammatory language while being in complete ignorance of the facts ...

"We have had to look across the board at deliverying best value, but underpinning it all is a desire to improve and enhance education in the Borders," said Mrs Bhatia.... "that is assuming he and not an Edinburgh-based MSP wrote the question.”

Mrs Bhatia said her administration was not complacent and, in the last eight years, had spent £1.7million of capital at Kelso High, including £342,000 in the next financial year for two new classrooms.

Property maintenance, funded from revenue, had amounted to £190,000 over the same period and no outstanding issues had since been reported.

“Mr Mitchell will note I make no mention of the contribution of the SNP, either locally or nationally, in the delivery of improved schools in the Borders. There is a good reason for that – there has not been any.

“Not only did they oppose the three new high schools, nearly two years after forming the national government the SNP has not commissioned one single new school building in Scotland that was not already being progressed under the previous Lib Dem/ Labour executive.

“At a time of economic downturn, the SNP government should be kick-starting large infrastructure projects such as new schools. Along with all the other election pledges they have ditched, such as a local income tax, £2,000 cash for first-time home buyers, cancelling student debt and reducing class sizes to 18, they have yet to admit that the Scottish Futures Trust [an alternative to public private partnership funding for major capital projects] is another of their pie in the sky ideas they cannot deliver.

“So yes, I most certainly do blame the SNP government for letting down the children of the Borders.”

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