Locals commemorate the anniversary of the closure ofWyndford and St Gregory's primary schools last year
On the eve of the May 2010 UK parliamentary elections, local parents and residents from the Wyndford held a march through the estate and onto Maryhill Road to protest outside the Labour Party election headquarters for Glasgow North. Continue reading
Posted in Campaign
Strikers show their colours outside the offices ofCulture & Sport Glasgow.
Anger against Culture & Sport Glasgow’s (CSG) intended £3.4m cuts to community leisure services and staff has led to public petitions in support of the strike action by Unison, Unite, GMB and Bectu members opposing these destructive cuts. Continue reading
Posted in Campaign
Parents of Wyndford have re-occupied Wyndford Primary School in protest against the school’s closure and their children having to enrol at schools over a mile away from their homes.
The reasons why the parents have re-occupied the school are the same as when they occupied during the Easter holidays. However, in addition to issues regarding their children’s safety and education, as well as in protest against the actions of Glasgow City Council towards their community, the parents also want to protect the building against vandals and fear Glasgow City Council may use the vandalism as an excuse to order the building to be pulled down, citing unsafe premises. The parents wish to save the building for use by the immediate and surrounding communities. There is already a lack of community facilities in the area and the parents wish to save the space to use as they see fit for their families and supporters.
The parents entered the school at 1.30pm, 26/06/09, when the children were released for the summer holidays and are preparing to stay for as long as necessary.
Update – 27/6/09 10am – Council with police preparing to enter occupied school and clear furniture and equipment. Glasgow City Council Director of Education, Maureen McKenna, visited and told the parents that water and electricity will be cut off and doors sealed (except for fire escapes).
Occupation is to be continued by parents regardless.
Information obtained from Glasgow City Council through a Freedom of Information Request shows there has been an intention to close Wyndford Primary School since at least 2006.
That contradicts official explanations for the closures. Consultation on the closures started Janaury 2009 only. Parents and staff were unaware of any possibility of closure until then.
Since 2006, repairs and building investment costing £274k was spent on Parkview Primary, versus £28k on the similar Wyndford Primary. Parkview Primary is to receive the ex-Wyndford Primary children from September 2009.
New windows in Parkview are only a relatively small part (£87k) of that difference.
The information from Glasgow City Council in full is below:
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Extract from repairs database for jobs over £5k, 2006 to date. |
|||
| 2 | ||||
| 3 | Address | Defect | Complete | Value |
| 4 | PARKVIEW PRIMARY | FIT ALARM | 3/16/06 | £5,910 |
| 5 | PARKVIEW PRIMARY | SCHOOL ADAPTATIONS | 9/4/06 | £63,500 |
| 6 | PARKVIEW PRIMARY | ADDITIONAL ADAPTATIONS AS AGREED |
3/27/07 | £48,768 |
| 7 | PARKVIEW PRIMARY | RAISE SECURITY FENCE HEIGHT | 3/26/07 | £7,129 |
| 8 | PARKVIEW PRIMARY | WINDOW REPLACEMENTS | 11/1/07 | £86,537 |
| 9 | PARKVIEW PRIMARY | KITCHEN VENTILATION UPGRADE | 7/24/07 | £7,757 |
| 10 | PARKVIEW PRIMARY | INSTALL DAMP PROOFING | 8/13/07 | £7,556 |
| 11 | PARKVIEW PRIMARY | DDA LIFTS AND HANDRAILS | 1/28/08 | £23,442 |
| 12 | PARKVIEW PRIMARY | DRAINAGE TO PITCH | 4/21/08 | £22,986 |
| 13 | TOTAL | £273,585 | ||
| 14 | ||||
| 15 | ||||
| 16 | Address | Defect | Complete | Value |
| 17 | WYNDFORD PRIMARY | TOILET WALL REPAIR | 2/27/06 | £7,476 |
| 18 | WYNDFORD PRIMARY | DECORATION/FLOOR COVERING | 4/3/07 | £6,842 |
| 19 | WYNDFORD PRIMARY | ELECTRICAL TESTING AND REPAIR | 6/3/08 | £5,330 |
| 20 | WYNDFORD PRIMARY | ROOF REPAIR | 2/3/09 | £8,588 |
| 21 | TOTAL | £28,236 | ||
| 22 |
Update 1 – 29th April 2009 – Further Details on Wyndford/Parkview repairs and investment
At a paltry £28k of repairs and investment, Glasgow City Council did essentially spend no money on repairs on Wyndford over that period. The Wyndford and Parkview buildings are similar in size, structure, and age so are good baselines for comparison of spending levels. The differences there are between the buildings would ordinarily mean Wyndford receiving more investment and repairs than Parkview – Parkview does not have a separate gym hall like Wyndford does, and Parkview building is also 10 years newer in age, again meaning less need for repairs and investments.
The main reason given for closing Wyndford Primary was that it was too dilapidated to be saved.
Wyndford Primary certainly needed repairs and investment. It’s windows are the original single glazing and need replaced with double glazing, as was done for the Parkview windows on 1st November 2007 at a cost of £86,537. Wyndford’s gym hall has chunks of missing wooden floor covering, which holes have been patched up with gaffer tape, but are still dangerous. That has prevented use of the gym on occasions and limits the activities children are allowed to do there. The walls of Wyndford Primary have not been painted for many years, with old paint crumbling off exposing plasterwork. The main lights in the dining hall are the originals which are just over 40 years old, are dirty and discoloured, and some no longer work. Those are the most visible defects, most likely other work would be found necessary or desirable were a survey to be carried out.
Joint Press Statement from the occupied Wyndford and St. Gregory’s Primary Schools, Maryhill, Glasgow.
In response to today’s announcement parents from Wyndford Primary and St. Gregory’s would like to make it clear that the campaign goes on.
Glasgow City Council has arrived at this decision regardless of the fact that 96% of responses to the consultation were against the closure.
We would suggest that the decision be looked at again giving councillors the opportunity to re-examine their conscience and do the right thing.
We have been informed that if the occupation of these schools continues our children will be moved to the receiving schools which we see as emotional blackmail.
As the electorate we are entitled to better than this from our elected representatives. Protest continues on Friday the 17th 10am Glasgow City Chambers.
We Shall Not Be Moved!
