South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has slammed Dumfries and Galloway Council for having no plan B for the future of Loreburn Primary and Dumfries Academy.

A recent bid by the council to the Scottish Government for Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP) to refurbish the Academy and relocate Loreburn Primary was unsuccessful.

Now a paper to the next meeting of the Council’s Education Committee on 14 March kicks the future of the two schools into the long grass by asking Councillors to go back to the drawing board.

Despite the funding bid being rejected in November, it’s taken the council four months to bring a report to councillors simply asking them to agree that officers bring another report in May looking at a range of options for the future of the two town centre schools.

For Loreburn Primary this includes addressing current maintenance issues, rebuilding the school on the existing site, relocating to the Minerva Hall at Dumfries Academy or to the site of another school yet to be identified or relocating to a new as yet unidentified site.

For the Academy the options include basic maintenance or the full refurbishment of the existing school, with or without a relocated Loreburn Primary on site.

Colin Smyth accused the council of “negligence” as a result of decisions in recent years which has created barriers to all the options now being looked at.

The original plan made as part of the Dumfries Learning Town project was to relocate Loreburn Primary to Minerva Hall and refurbish the Academy all on a single site. However, to cut costs that proposal was changed to relocate Loreburn Primary to Minerva Hall at the Academy and create a split campus by using the Bridge near Cuckoo Bridge for subjects such as science. Colin Smyth believes the plan for a split campus has “zero support” from parents and teachers and was rejected by the Scottish Government for funding.

Colin Smyth believes refurbishing Loreburn at the existing site following the council’s recent decision to agree planning permission to build a car park on the Greensands with the entrance next to current school and the fact the Council would need to buy back the former Art College in the school grounds which they sold to a developer for flats, shows a lack of “joined up thinking” from council departments.

The MSP argues the only viable option is the full refurbishment of the Academy and re-locating Loreburn Primary to a new town centre site. He believes this could be achieved by re-locating Gracefield Arts Centre to the Town Centre and using the current Arts centre site along with the former Elmbank school site for a new Loreburn primary.

However, there are also challenges over space as a result of the recent decision by the council to sell the former Education Department offices next door to Gracefield at Woodbank and the former Langlands Primary behind Gracefield Arts Centre. Colin Smyth believes the council should have had a proper masterplan for the whole site instead of selling it off to developers in small plots.

Colin Smyth said: “It’s more than a decade since this council promised pupils, parents and staff they would address the shocking condition of both schools and they have done nothing.

“The lack of a plan b, when the council knew their bid for Scottish Government funding may not be successful and the fact they have waited four months just to say they have no plan, shows they want to kick the whole issue into the long grass.

“The so-called ‘possible options’ they are going to look at are all fraught with difficulties because of short-sighted decisions made by the council.

“The original plan to re-locate Loreburn to the Academy now has zero support from parents at both schools since the council changed it to include creating a split campus with the Bridge.

“Proposing to refurbish Loreburn on the existing site, at the same time as building a new car park next door which will increase traffic outside the school, shows the lack of a joined-up approach by the council. It would also mean the council having to find money to buy the former Art College in the school playground- which they sold off years ago for housing.

“The only viable option seems to be re-locating Loreburn to the current Gracefield Arts centre. I have been a long-time supporter of moving Gracefield closer to the High Street, possibly combining it with building a desperately needed replacement archive centre and even a small cinema to help regenerate the town centre.

“However, the utter negligence by the council in selling off the former Langlands school and the Council’s Education Offices at Woodbank both beside Gracefield instead of having a proper masterplan for the whole site may limit this option due to a lack of space, unless again the council try to buy back land they sold.

“It is little wonder parents, pupils and staff at both schools have completely lost faith in the council.

“None of the pupils at Loreburn were even born when commitments were made on Loreburn and the Academy, and most will have left school by the time anything is done, if at all, and that is a damning indictment of the utter failure of this council.”