The closure threat to Corrie Primary School appears to be receding, but the battle is still to be won.
Sixty islanders were given grounds for optimism when they attended a public meeting in Corrie and Sannox Village Hall on Wednesday night to protest against North Ayrshire Council proposals to close the school.
The bid to close Corrie and send the children to Brodick Primary came in a review of NAC’s schools estate as part of a nationwide review, but the meeting exposed flaws in the review group’s argument.
NAC Arran member Margie Currie said: ‘I am sticking my neck out here, but I think that there is a good case that Corrie will not be closed.’
She said that at the time the report was drawn up NAC was unaware of plans to build 18 affordable homes at Corrie and seven croft houses on Forestry Commission land at Sannox.
The review group did not consider the five-mile limit for pupils to travel to school – Brodick Primary, which is at capacity anyway, is more than that. The journey is even further from Sannox.
‘North Ayrshire did not even look at the nursery in considering Corrie, where it is a state-of-the-art facility,’ she said.
Fellow NAC councillor Tony Gurney agreed: ‘There are no plans for the nursery. They didn’t give it a single thought.’
Even if it was decided to close the school and amalgamate it with Brodick Primary, there was an automatic right of appeal to Scottish ministers, she added.
A parents’ petition has kicked off the campaign to keep the school. The Scottish Rural Schools Network is also legally challenging the school roll figures on which the review group acted, the meeting was told.
Unison representative Colin Turbett said the union would provide funds for the campaign if it needed help.
It was pointed out that the closure of the 15-pupil school would mean the closure of the nursery, which has four children at present. It takes children from Lochranza. Its closure would make it extremely difficult for them to find another one, the nearest being Shiskine or Lamlash.
The meeting also heard that with 150 houses planned in the Craigforth Report, mainly for Brodick, Lamlash and Whiting Bay, it was possible that their schools would be unable to cope with pupils from elsewhere anyway.
Islanders were urged to respond individually to the consultation about the proposed closure, which would take place between January and March, and also to make their objections in writing to the council.
They were also urged not allow Corrie to become another Kilmory, which lost its post office, shop and pub within six weeks of each other.
