THE fight to save three Edinburgh primary schools from the axe is set to begin in earnest as a public consultation into the closures gets under way today.
A series of meetings and exhibitions are to be held over the coming weeks, giving parents the chance to comment on plans to close Bonnington, Lismore and Westburn primaries.
The future of the three schools has been hanging in the balance since the
y were officially placed on the council hit-list in June.
Bonnington and Lismore primaries are recommended to close when the children go on Christmas vacation, while Westburn Primary would shut next August under the proposals.
Closing the three schools would earn the council up to £6.8 million through land sales and savings on running costs and staff.
It is estimated that selling the land Lismore could also earn the council £3m, while both Bonnington and Westburn could be sold for £1.4m each.
The consultation outlines the reasons why each school has been placed on the hit-list and gives options for what would happen if the schools were to close.
Children from Bonnington would either go to Leith Primary or one of the other schools in the catchment area: Lorne, Trinity, Broughton or Fort.
The two options for Lismore are Brunstane or Niddrie Mill primaries, while children currently at Westburn would go to Sighthill, Murrayburn or Canal View primaries, depending on where they live.
Parents of children at Lismore Primary have come up with their own alternative to the two options in a bid to try and save the school.
Campaigners say that by demolishing the existing building and selling off land to developers, enough money would be freed up to build a brand new school on a small section of the spacious Bingham Avenue site.
They say a new school would give Lismore a secure future in the Bingham community, attract new pupils and would stop the council having to pay for repairs to the ageing building.
Maggie Paterson, chair of Lismore Primary's parent council,
said: "We have recently met up with (director of education] Gillian Tee and (education leader] Marilyne MacLaren and both meetings have been successful. "I'm excited about our plans and want to put people in tune with what we are thinking and hopefully they will join in. I'm still very confident that we will not close."
But Lisa Manders, chair of Bonnington's parent council, said
: "I will be going along to the meetings but everyone is expecting the school to close."
The closure review was ordered following a 19 per cent drop in pupils attending primary school in the Capital over the last decade, which means there are now 9500 spare places in the city's schools.
A council spokeswoman said: "This means many of our pupils are being taught in buildings which are expensive to run as they are too big for the number of pupils.
"It is important that we use our resources wisely to allow us to give all pupils a quality education in schools fit for the 21st century.
"No decisions have been made and we are now consulting with parents and stakeholders to listen to their views on the proposals."
Consultation finishes on October 7 and a final decision will be taken in November.
The full article contains 555 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
