TWO communities have vowed to join forces in order to fight the council cuts which are threatening their primary schools.

Parents from Coalsnaughton and Fishcross were left gutted last week when the council’s budget engagement outlined a proposal to shut down both primary schools as they look to save money.

The announcement sparked a quick fightback from parents, however, who have since taken to the streets with surveys and petitions which have garnered thousands of signatures already.

Meetings have already taken place between the groups and head of education, Anne Pearson, with communities arguing that to take these schools out of the villages will all but kill the communities.

The Fishcross Parents Group and Coalsnaughton Parent Council have now vowed to take the fight to the council together in order to save the schools.

Both groups have begun going door-to-door in their areas to collect as many signatures and opinions as possible to show the council when the consultation period ends, with the hope officials will look elsewhere as they try and save money.

In the budget engagement, it was revealed that the council will need to save around £11m in the next three years.

According to the document, closing the schools would save around £164,000.

Kari Smith and Zoe Bradie, part of the Fishcross Parents Group, told the Advertiser that they met with Anne Pearson, head of education, last Friday to get more information.

Zoe said: "They have answers, but not all of the answers. This doesn't just affect current pupils and future pupils, this affects the whole community. Fishcross has been there since 1875, which a lot of people don't actually realise.

"If you take that school away then you kill the community. Our kids will fall under the catchment of Craigbank Primary. Some people aren't happy about that."

Kari added: "To go there [Craigbank] is a big change for kids, especially the younger ones.

"It is also a long walk, around half an hour for most people, so for parents to take their kids there and back is adding on two hours to their day.

"She [Pearson] has to save money, but this is not taking into consideration the feelings of people."

Cheryl Hughes and Dawn Haddow of the Coalsnaughton Parent Council expressed their "shock and sadness" at the potential closures, saying there is no educational benefit to the change.

Yesterday, Cheryl told the Advertiser: "They [council] have just pulled funding from our town hall, which was the hub for the youth club and where the school goes for the nativities, so we've not got that in the community anymore, so the school is the heart of the community.

"They just propose to rip that heart out then expect the kids to walk, some of them two miles to Tillicoultry – which is what they are proposing.

"I just think it's ridiculous that we've got a school in the middle of the community and they are looking to close that down."

Dawn added that in a meeting with Anne Pearson, the parent council were given no assurances that there would be travel put on for the children.

"We can't see any educational benefit of our kids going down there. It's all financial," Cheryl added.

The parent council have also cited Ms Pearson as saying that the savings would come from teacher salaries, which they refute.

Cheryl continued: "We wanted to know where the savings of £164,000 were coming from and we were told that would be staff wages.

"However, a lot of the staff would be redeployed elsewhere, so they're not saving."

Both the Fishcross and Coalsnaughton parent groups have now launched petitions and surveys and are urging everyone in the community to get their names down to show the council they are willing to fight.

Cheryl added that there is a "blue room" in Coalsnaughton PS with computers and internet access open to the public Monday – Friday for anyone who wishes to sign up and doesn't have their own web access.

Neighbouring communities are also voicing their concerns over the schools proposals, which is likely to have a notable knock-on effect.

Damian Sherwood-Johnson, chair of the Tillicoultry, Coalsnaughton and Devonside Community Council, said:"We are deeply worried about the impact of this unexpected proposal, not only on the community of Coalsnaughton, but also on Tillicoultry Primary School.

"Parents and carers are understandably anxious about how their children will cope with this and what it might mean for their educational attainment. This would be a terrible blow for an already disadvantaged community."

Last week Councillor Graham Lindsay, the education spokesman, stressed that the SNP administration would engage with parents throughout the budget process.

He said: "The proposals put forward by officers in respect of both Fishcross and Coalsnaughton are part of an overarching development and improvement strategy for the school estate.

"There has to be a statutory consultation before any decisions are made, based on the best educational outcomes for our children and young people across the whole of Clackmannanshire.

"The council spends about 40 per cent of its annual budget on education, therefore this service cannot be excluded from the budget engagement process.

"We are acutely aware that some of these officer proposals, particularly in relation to schools, will be of concern to many people.

"As an administration, we will be fully committed to an engagement and listening exercise to ensure we fully understand the views of the Clackmannanshire community."

A spokesperson for Clackmannanshire Council added: "No decisions have yet been taken. These are officer options which will be part of budget consultation, which will then inform the decision making of councillors at the budget meeting.

"If these options are agreed, they will then move to a statutory consultation process before any final decisions are taken."

To access the petitions and surveys, please visit Fishcross Parents Group and Save Coalsnaughton Primary 2019 on Facebook.