North Ayrshire and Arran MP Katy Clark has welcomed the news that North Ayrshire Council has been successful in its bid for funding for two thirds of the cost of a new Garnock Academy through the Scottish Governments school building program. The local council will provide the remaining one third of the cost which means North Ayrshire Council having to find £10m from their capital program to fund the project.
The SNP have been criticised for the delay in the schools building programme and the new Garnock Academy will funding for 2/3 of the total replacement costs The Scottish Government announced the first 14 secondary schools to be built since they were elected in 2007 but none will be built during the lifespan of this Parliament.
Katy said, "This is very welcome news. I am sure that many of my constituents will be delighted to see a new Garnock Academy built which will hopefully provide better educational facilities for children in the area. "
"The SNP promised that they would match Labour's school building brick for brick during this Parliament but the stark truth is that not one new secondary school will be built during their four year term. By the time these schools are built pupils will have been to secondary and gone again."
"I do have to say that I welcome that the school will not be financed through PPP which I oppose due to the long term costs of such projects. However, I do have serious doubts about the SNPs Futures Trust Fund which the SNP have blamed the delay in their school building programme. But it is now clear that the Trust Fund will not be contributing a single penny to building these schools and Nicola Sturgeons refusal to say otherwise during last weeks First Minister's questions confirms this. It has cost £23m to setup the Futures Trust Fund and it has generated not a single coin for Scotland’s schools. Two years have been wasted and another SNP pledge has not been delivered. "