**Note** This post is ’stickied’ to the top of the page, new content will be below it.

You can use this form to automatically send your objections or comments to all four Bucksburn Councillors and David Leng(Head of the ACC Department involved in this). We’ve even filled in an example - use this or write your own.
A copy will also be sent to the parent council - we will not use your personal information for any purpose. We are just counting the emails sent.

Use bucksburn@bucksburn.info if you want to hide your email.

If you are not redirected to the thank you page and instead get the 404 “You are looking for something that just isn’t here” please try the form again. Occasionally the site has a bit of lag due to technical reasons that I won’t go in to! If you don’t get the thank you confirmation page your email did not send.
Councillor McDonald has responded to the default form above with the following—

Thank you for your email regarding the proposed amalgamation of
Bucksburn & Newhills Schools.

Regarding the options you have outlined.

A refurbishment of the school would, in my opinion, be both extremely
disruptive and extremely expensive.

There would require to be extensive, intrusive construction work, and
given the age of the buildings the likelihood of asbestos being present
is high. This means that works would require children to be relocated
and decanted for a period of time while work was undertaken. This period
of time could be considerable.

The construction of two new schools may also be cost prohibitive.
While, on the face of it, it may seem like dividing £8million by two,
the reality is that the costs would be higher than that of building one
new school. It is unlikely the capital budget could incorporate the
level of expenditure required for two new schools in the Bucksburn
area.

I firmly believe that a new, state of the art facility, would be an
exciting opportunity for Bucksburn as a community, and I would be
looking for any feasibility study which is considered to examine both
sites which are currently occupied by Bucksburn and Newhills
respectively.

I am aware that there are a number of factors surrounding any
amalgamation which would need to be considered, but at present I still
feel it is the best option on the table.

I will await the outcome of the consultation process.

Regards

Mark McDonald

You can also download the site as a podcast by pointing your podcast client towards http://podcasts.odiogo.com/bucksburn-school-parent-council/podcasts-xml.php or if you use itunes just click here.

It’s free and automatically generated and yet it’s surprisingly good quality. This should help enable those who can’t read the posts easily for whatever reason to better access our information.

All old links should still work.

The meeting has already happened but the petition is still available for signatures. There are copies in the Beacon Community Centre and I have copies here too. Here’s a link to the poster (.rtf) and here’s what it says…

BUCKSBURN - CAN WE TRUST THE ‘ TRUST ‘?

Aberdeen City Council has set plans in motion to hand over Sports Facilities in Aberdeen to a Sports Trust which will operate these facilities at ‘Arms Length’. In spite of the fact that the Beacon is a Community Centre it has been included in this plan and we stand to lose the focus of our community to a faceless group who will not have the same local commitment to accessible affordable services.

• Under this plan Bucksbum is the ONLY area in Aberdeen to lose its Community Centre
• The Council claim that this will with their financial burden - THEY ARE IGNORING THE FACT THAT THE BEACON PROGRAMME IS SELF FINANCING, WE DO NOT RUN AT A LOSS
• The Council is also ignoring the fact that the Gym, Squash courts and Gymnastic facility were all paid for by locally raised funds - WHAT RIGHT DO THEY HAVE TO GIVE THIS AWAY?

The Management Committee at the Beacon was only told of this plan at the beginning of September and the Council seems determined to push this through as quickly as possible and voted down a request for meaningful community consultation.

WE NEED TO ACT NOW

We are organising a meeting for the 27^th of October 2008 at 7pm in the Beacon Community Centre. We will be inviting Local Councillors along with Council Officials who have drafted this plan without fully realising what the Beacon Community stands for. This is your chance to have your say and find out exactly what is happening.

Glasgow has already suffered by having Public Access Facilities handed over to a Trust composed of faceless businessmen.

- DON’T LET IT HAPPEN HERE!

Beacon Community Centre Management Committee

I hope you can all sign this, the Beacon Community Centre is an integral part of the Bucksburn and Newhills communities. Even if you don’t use it yourself you might well use it in the future. The costs of using the Beacon Community Centre will rise up to 5 times higher than you pay right now, an example was the badminton which is priced at £2.50 or thereabouts per session, this could rise to over £9. Bucksburn definitely does not need this.

I don’t know why the council in Aberdeen City want to kill Bucksburn off. We are losing the hearts of our community left right and centre. They fail to realise that, although we might be within the boundaries of Aberdeen City, this is NOT the city centre. We have a great LOCAL community and that is something to be embraced and acclaimed in these times.

Aberdeen City Council seem determined to destroy this community with no regards to the population’s opinion.

If you wish to view the consultation document it is available by following this link (.pdf file) and there is a hard copy in the school.

The parent council/PTA have developed their own views on key points requiring attention and would encourage all parents to speak with us with any concerns and to find out our opinions.

Dear All,

Many thanks to the 5 parents who attended the meeting held at the Beacon Community Centre on Wed 10th Sept.

A short presentation was given by CLICC, before the floor was opened up to the parents for questions, after which, the group agreed that CLICC should take on the management of the project.

CLICC will now proceed to write their own business plan before registering with the Care Commission. This is a process that can take anything from 3 to 6 months, but due to the work that has already been put in place by the Development Officers, the process will hopefully not take quite as long.

All further developments will be carried out by CLICC, and I imagine that they will contact families from all three schools in due course.

Best wishes for the future

Kind regards

Elaine Allan

Childcare Development Officer
Aberlour Children’s Services
& Training & Assessment Centre (CSTAC)
Early Years Service Centre
Silverburn Lodge
Claymore Drive
Bridge of Don
Aberdeen AB23 8GD

Hopefully we’ll have a fully functioning out-of-school care system set up soon in Bucksburn/Newhills.

• backchat 105

Today from 2pm-3pm and again this evening from 7pm-8pm.

Jean and her team can help make parenting kids through school a more enjoyable task so this should be a worthwhile event.

Don’t forget either that we have the Parent Forum page for other discussions!

“We propose to go to consultation on a new school for Bucksburn and Newhills, a suggestion that has fairly widespread support within the local community. Neither of these two schools are fit for purpose and a new school will complement the new Bucksburn Academy giving the area two new schools fit for the 21st century.”

The words of Councillor Kirsty West.

Is this true?