A WEEK prior to Christmas, 95 pupils in the Dunfermline area were issued with a letter advising them that they may no longer be moving to their chosen high school in August.

When councillors unanimously rejected re-zoning plans, for a second time, in November, we were not informed that what was originally thought to affect up to 50 pupils would actually be almost double this. We also were not advised that contingency plans put in by unelected officers would mean that a lottery of sorts would be set-up and affected pupils would be going to Inverkeithing High School instead.

The timing of the letter alone shows a gross mishandling of the situation. What sort of “surprise” was that to present youngsters with just before Christmas? Families who had not previously thought they would be affected are now in a receipt of a letter telling them where they feature in this lottery of 95.

This could be considered to be a Dunfermline “problem” but it potentially is a Fife problem (look at Kelty). Ongoing house-building across the Kingdom is to be welcomed, but the necessary infrastructure has to be in place to accommodate new and expanding communities.

Houses have been built but sufficient local infrastructure has not. A number of new primary schools (some of which are now near to capacity) and the odd play park are wholly insufficient to cater for any growing town. It would not be unreasonable to assume, a decade ago, that new houses may have children in them who would need to attend high school.

Fife Council has set-up a £5 million “working group” to address limitations on the school estate and my understanding is that four applications for new houses to be built have been put on hold due to the need for further development of local infrastructure.

It is absolutely imperative that the Council’s Administration is mindful of this. The over-capacity problem in Dunfermline is a result of the previous Council Administration not addressing what was recognised as a potential issue at least as early as 2015.

No pupil in primary 7 should be facing the uncertainty of where they will attend high school later this year. Youngsters are faced with stress and worry at a very important transition in their educational development and all due to poor planning and lack of foresight by some elected councillors and unelected Council officers. The shambles of late-rezoning and school over-capacity in Dunfermline should be a lesson learned for Fife Council.

COUNCILLOR KATHLEEN LESLIE

Scottish Conservative.