Save our Schools

We hadn't mentioned this before mostly because we thought the schools would eventually win but as I just read on the BBC that was a bit naive.

Problems facing the City today - breaking down of community spirit, global warming, child obesity and high unemployment.

Solutions proposed by Glasgow City Council - close up schools, shut down swimming pools, sell off the libraries and leisure facilities and build a big massive road.

None of these proposals solve any of the above problems and in fact most of them either exasperate the issues or just delay their full impact for someone in the future to deal with - unless they think making four years old's walk two miles to school is the solution to obesity.

The suggested closure of the schools and nurseries seems just another in a long line of crazy decisions. Is it always the Council's policy to fix a problem in the quickest and most shortsighted way possible and ignore all the knock on effects their actions will have. (Maybe that's the problem with a system concerned with having enough votes come election night.)

I understand that many of the old school buildings are in need of an overhaul and that this will be a costly exercise but by closing them up and selling off the sites the Council is completely wasting valuable resources. The reason the Schools and nurseries are located where they are, is because they are centred within the heart of their communities. People live round them as they want to be close to where their kids go to school. That is also the reason they are so attractive to the big wig developers, these prime sites are worth a lot of cash but as more and more of our areas are stripped of schools, shops and other community resources what is left and will anyone actually want to live there?

OK so the sale of the sites might bring in a ton of cash but even if every penny of this is spent on improving the remaining schools are we not limiting ourselves for the future. As a business model selling off assets to improve other properties is flawed - what do we do once we've sold everything? and what happens if we decide we need to buy back the things we have sold?

Part of the reason that we are losing our community spirit is because more and more we have to travel out with our local area to work, shop and play. We increasingly complete this travel by car and therefore never meet and befriend anyone in the neighbourhood. As everything becomes centralised in larger facilities do we start to feel like we lose any personal connection or ownership to what is going on?

This is exactly what is going to happen to all these closed schools - you will have children who used to be able to go round the corner to school now having to either walk a couple of miles or get a bus or car in the morning. No more parents meeting, chatting discussing local issues at the school gate, no more community events being held within the school, in one swoop that will all be gone.

The citizens of Glasgow are lucky to own these schools and should be demanding that our money is pumped into these locations to help improve and increase their impact on the local communities and not ripping them out.

For more info or to get involved then visit the below sites:

Video report on Daily Record
Save our Schools Glasgow
Save our Nurseries
BBC list of closures
Hear what the kids have to say on CBBC
Placemaking for communities