Scottish council's U-turn on decision to close four nurseries hailed as 'victory'
The move comes after serious backlash from communities affected by the initial closure announcement.
A council said it plans to drop its decision to close nurseries temporarily ahead of an emergency meeting next week.
Aberdeenshire Council announced earlier this year it planned to mothball four nurseries across the region.
The move was met with a major backlash by communities affected by the proposals, with parents accusing the council of acting unlawfully.
The affected nurseries include Crossroads, Ballogie, Glass and Sandhaven.
An emergency meeting on the proposed closures is due to go ahead on Monday.
But in an unexpected U-turn, just days before the meeting, the council revealed it plans to pause any future mothballing of nurseries underway while it examines official guidance on the process.
Head of Aberdeenshire Council Gillian Owen said while it was unusual to make the announcement ahead of the official meeting, councillors will still meet on Monday as the decision is “still required to be considered through the decision-making process at full council”.
Ahead of the meeting, Alexander Burnett, the MSP for Aberdeenshire West, had received confirmation from the Scottish Government that the council should have held a public consultation, under the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010, before any decision was taken.
The Act states councils should engage as “early as possible” with families affected by proposals to mothball a nursery.
In letters sent to councillors before the U-turn announcement, a parent group had accused the council of “acting illegally and improperly when making the decision to mothball these settings and we would urge you to please consider our position in detail prior to the meeting.”
The letter added: “Crossroads Nursery is a thriving rural nursery which serves our local rural community, this is not a nursery with struggling numbers or for which there is a low demand. This is a much-needed rural service which has provided exceptional care and the best start in life for our young people.”
Mr Burnett described the council’s decision to remove the plans from the table as “a victory for our rural areas”.
“These nurseries help form the pillar of our communities and they are assets that we must keep open across Aberdeenshire,” the MSP said.
“I am pleased Aberdeenshire Council has listened to the concerns of parents and has also agreed to review its mothballing policy, which I have also been campaigning for.”
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Mr Owen said: “The administration is minded to seek a review of our mothballing guidance to incorporate a consultation process with parents.
“We acknowledge the strong feelings concerning the four settings and appreciate the concerns of parents who highly value their local early learning facilities. We are trying to balance the needs of children and families, with a challenging financial position – but it is critical we do this in the right way.
“We will be recommending that we pause planning for all future mothballing activity currently underway, whilst we examine the guidance. Whilst we have been engaging with parents, we need to consult at a much earlier stage to inform the decision-making process, and we will explore how to integrate this into the procedure.
“We will also recommend reversing the budget decision identifying this as a saving in our 2025/26 budget process and seek to identify the saving from elsewhere.
“We are taking the unusual step of announcing our intention prior to the meeting in the hope that we remove further anxiety for the people who have made requests to speak.”
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