UNCERTAINTY OVER HOSTEL CONTINUES
Parents of children who use Dunoon School Hostel continue to be kept in the dark about the situation regarding the hostel’s closure.
Argyll and Bute Council sent a letter to parents last week advising that it had decided to temporarily close the hostel for up to a year due to essential upgrading work. However, firm dates for starting work and shutting the hostel have not been decided, and more worryingly for parents, they have been given no information about alternative arrangements for their children while the hostel is out of action.
Daily travelling
The initial letter stated that “daily transport will be arranged to allow pupils to attend school.” This, however, is the scenario that the majority of parents want to avoid as the implications for schoolchildren are immense.
Currently 41 pupils from the Lochgoilhead and Tighnabruaich areas use the hostel, and would face a daily 70-mile round trip and an almost ten-hour day - having to get up early to leave around 7.30am and not reaching home until after 5pm. This would also negate their participation in extra curricular activities or supported study, and would impose an additional burden in terms of doing homework and revision at exam times.
The council’s letter to parents does not give details of the nature of the work required, but it is understood to relate to asbestos-based material which provides fire protection. A Health and Safety Executive report earlier this year highlighted potential hazards associated with the asbestos and the Care Commission indicated that common areas and toilets would require to be upgraded.
Communication
Parents were vocal about the concerns they have for their children’s welfare as a result of the hostel closure, and these frustrations would seem to have been exacerbated by the lack of information or communication from the council.
Hazel Robinson’s two teenagers are among those who will be affected by the closure. Hazel said: “We understand that the council has to carry out this work and that the hostel will have to be closed while it is done.
“But the council is not addressing our concerns. It is not communicating with us and this is only adding to our fears.
“Despite repeated calls to the council this week, we still don’t have any more information.”
This was echoed by Una McRae of Tighnabruaich, who also has two teenage children in the hostel. “Better communication would alleviate the feeling of mistrust that is growing.
“Both parents and children accept that the hostel has to close for a time. We feel that if it closed in Easter 2008, this would minimise disruption to students. Senior pupils are on study leave after Easter and it’s closer to the summer holidays when work could be done.
“Basically, we want to know the full facts and the full implications so that we can deal with it. We need reassurances that the hostel will re-open.”
Imminence of closure
Fiona Irvine of Tighnabruaich said: “Many children are alarmed and upset at the prospect of the hostel closing.
“They have had great reassurance from the hostel staff and houseparents - but even they don’t know what is going on.
“We don’t want to go over any past mistakes - we don’t want to instigate recriminations over what may have lead to the closure - our main focus is the effect it will have on our children and how this can be resolved. We don’t dispute the need for closure, but we do need more consultation, especially about alternatives other than daily travelling.
“Parents and children are concerned about the apparent imminence of closure and there are also fears about whether the hostel will re-open at all, especially if the daily transport option is decided on.
“There’s a lot of anxiety about this. It is not just a change in routine, but a change in lifestyle.”
Concerned families in both communities are organising meetings to discuss the situation and have asked local councillors to attend in order that they can present their case.
Councillor Alex McNaughton commented: “This is devastating for both parents and children in rural areas - not only in terms of their education but also the extra curricular activities that so many enjoy.
“Bussing not the answer”
“Bussing would not appear to be the best solution and we really have to try hard to find an alternative.”
Councillor Ron Simon has echoed the parents’ calls for communication: “I have asked that parents be notified of any decisions as soon as possible and more importantly that they be kept fully informed. I sympathise with parents’ concerns and I hope that the council will work hard to keep disruption - especially at exam times - to a minimum, and to ensure that children don’t miss out on after-school activities.”
Strathclyde Fire and Rescue issued the following statement: “We have been in a series of talks with Argyll and Bute Council about the hostel and have been working hard to resolve the issues that have to be addressed.” The fire service did not give any further information about the timescales involved.
Argyll and Bute MSP Jim Mather has contacted the council’s Director of Community Services for clarification on the issue. He said: “The core purpose in providing hostel accommodation is to save pupils from outlying areas from the stresses and strains of such demanding daily journeys. I am therefore seeking explanations coupled with some strenuous further attempts to find a better solution.”
Hostel staff who did not wish to be named confirmed that they had been told only of the hostel’s impending closure without any indication of when this would take place.


ARRESTS MARK THE END OF ‘FASLANE 365’
Over 170 anti-nuclear protesters were arrested on Monday as they marked the end of a year-long campaign at the Faslane submarine base.
Many of the estimated 500 protesters blockaded the main entrance by glueing themselves to the road or chaining themselves to the perimeter fence. Police moved in quickly to make the arrests with witnesses saying that there was a continuous stream of people being carried away by the officers.
The demonstrations brought ‘Faslane 365’, the year-long campaign against the hosting of the Trident fleet which has resulted in more than 900 arrests and has reportedly cost in excess of £5m in policing costs, to an end.
Protesters began to arrive before 7am on Monday, being coached in from all over the country, only to be met by a large police presence who had brought special cutting equipment with them which was used when the protesters blocked access to the main gates by lying on the ground with their arms linked by tubes.
The police urged motorists to avoid the area around the base while the protest lasted.
A spokesman for Faslane said the protests had not had any effect on the main operations or people inside the base, adding: “It’s unfortunate that the protests have had an impact on the local community.”


GPs demand action
Doctors on Monday (October 1) warned that rural GP services are increasingly under threat as new pharmacies are introduced into small rural communities in Scotland, without local consultation into the consequences for patient services in the area. The warning came at the start of Rural Health Week.
GPs in some of the most isolated communities in Scotland offer pharmacy-type dispensing services and are known as ‘dispensing doctors’.
They combine GP and dispensing services in the practice, often in communities where no pharmacy or chemist is available. This ensures that patients have local access to essential pharmacy services and for GPs, the additional income from dispensing allows them to provide a wider range of services locally.
Changes to the national pharmacy contract enable pharmacists to provide a number of additional services as part of their business making community pharmacies more viable in smaller communities. However, a consequence of this is that existing GP practices lose their dispensing rights and subsequently the loss of income limits their ability to deliver additional medical services to patients and could impact upon the provision of services and clinics locally.
Dispensing doctors believe that this represents a change to local service delivery and as such, requires full public consultation under the arrangements set out in the NHS Reform (Scotland) Act 2004.
Dr Andrew Buist, Deputy Chairman of the BMs Scottish General Practitioners Committee and lead on rural health issues, said: “We can appreciate the desire of NHS boards to approve new pharmacies in some areas previously serviced by dispensing doctors, but careful consideration must be given to the impact this will have on the provision of GP services.
“Generally dispensing practices use income from dispensing to provide a wider range of services for their patients, often employing additional staff such as nurses or extra GPs. Consequently, the withdrawal of dispensing income may pose a serious threat to the sustainability of these services. It is clear that, without financial protection, a practice could be destabilised by the loss of a substantial portion of its income over a short period of time.
“Residents in local communities may welcome the establishment of a new local community pharmacy however if they were made aware of the impact that this could have on their ability to access a wider range of healthcare services from their local GP practice, then they may not be so enthusiastic. We therefore believe that NHS Boards should be obliged to consult with local residents to establish their views before approving pharmacy applications.”
Dr Susan Taylor, Chair of the Rural Practitioners Association in Scotland, said: “Rural dispensing GPs currently provide excellent services to their patients, but cannot access the new income streams available to community pharmacists under the new contract. Destabilisation of these rural practices by the introduction of a new pharmacy could mean communities will lose access to a local GP service.”


£1m investment boost for Dunoon
A £1 million-plus investment in Dunoon’s Professional Diving Academy is set to bring a jobs and economic boost to the Argyll town.
The venture, which includes a new diver training vessel for the Sandbank-based facility, will create more than 20 new jobs at the academy and bolster local businesses with students from all over the world expected to enrol.
The initiative, which will be announced later today (Friday) by Scottish Energy Minister and Argyll and Bute MSP Jim Mather, will also tackle the critical offshore skills shortage by training divers to work in the demanding oil and gas sector.
The academy, which is celebrating its third anniversary, is increasing its capabilities with the new vessel to satisfy the boom in demand for commercial diver training. A saturation diving system, in which divers can live at pressure for up to 28 days, is also to be built at Dunoon.
It will be installed on one of the academy’s vessels berthed in the Holy Loch and the sophisticated equipment to be used in the system will be developed in partnership with the National Hyperbaric Centre in Aberdeen.
The announcement will be made during an Open Day at the academy to showcase the facilities that attract trainees from around the globe.
Jim Mather said: “I am absolutely delighted that the Professional Diving Academy is making this investment not only in its own future but to help boost the future prosperity of our area. These new developments will undoubtedly enhance the reputation of the academy as a centre of excellence in diver training and attract recruits from all over the UK as well as overseas, boosting the local economy in the process.
“This is a great example of how a relatively new enterprise can provide vital skills for Scotland’s energy sector and contribute to the local economy and tourism.”
The academy was established in 2004, at the Sandbank Business Park, to satisfy the high expectations and standards demanded by the diving industry in the 21st century. It already boasts the diving vessel MV Sleat, described as probably the best fitted out diver training vessel anywhere in the world.
The facility’s premises also house a purpose-built dive tank, decompression chamber, workshops, lecture room and six state-of-the-art welding bays to teach underwater and surface welding techniques.
The new developments will complement the existing training facilities and address the skills gap faced by the booming offshore industry as a whole. It is estimated that in the next two or three years the marine contracting industry will need an extra 800 personnel in saturation diving and related positions along with thousands of personnel in other disciplines.
Tom Brannan, managing director of the Professional Diving Academy, said: “We have had great support from local businesses in the early days of developing the company and we are very pleased to be making this investment in the area and meeting a need throughout the marine industry. Dunoon is strategically ideal for us to develop, given the good water conditions and marine environment generally.”
David Smith, director of the academy and managing director of the National Hyperbaric Centre in Aberdeen, said: “It is great to see a young enterprise like the diving academy grow so competently to meet commercial demands. The area is already home to a number of subsea-related businesses using front-end technology and we are adding to that cluster of expertise.”