In December last year 95 children were placed in Inverkeithing High School due to the lack of capacity at Woodmill. While they were eventually all able to be placed in schools in Dunfermline, this was due to placing requests and Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson and Councillor for Dunfermline South has called for the Council to change its policy to give them free transportation to their schools.

Cllr. Calder has said,

Children and families through no fault of their own have faced uncertainty due to the Council having not dealt with the catchment review when they knew about this years ago. The fact is that the 95 children were only able to go to school in Dunfermline due to placing requests.

The Council should recognise this as a fault of Fife Council’s making and should provide free transportation to the children whose families made placing requests due to this situation. Families should not be financially hit because of a long term failure of planning by the Council and if transportation is not provided we are only likely to see more parking problems at Dunfermline’s schools as more parents opt to drive their children to school.

I therefore call on Fife Council Education and Children’s services department to urgently reconsider their policy on this.