Letters / Deplorable attack
On returning this week from my annual holidays, I collected my back numbers of The Shetland Times from the Bressay shop.
Scanning the pages I’d missed, I could find no trace of an explanation, from the three North Isles councillors, of why they all voted on 18 February against my proposal that the council should guarantee the future of secondary education at Mid Yell and Symbister, and instead consult on closure of the secondary departments at Baltasound, Aith and Sandwick, where there could be clear educational and financial benefits.
Perhaps the North Isles members have been too busy, explaining their actions to their Yell and Whalsay constituents in private, to make any public statements?
Nor could I find, in the back numbers, any explanation from those Lerwick councillors who last month voted, in effect, to reduce the cash available for the three town schools by continuing to support more country schools than Shetland needs or can afford.
What I did find in The Shetland Times and online (Asset stripping; SN, 11/03/15 and SIC chief executive under fire over school closure decision; SN, 11/03/15) was a deplorable, ignorant, personal attack by Jeremy Sansom on the motives, integrity and competence of the council’s chief executive, Mark Boden.
Mr Boden was indeed only doing his job when he appeared on local radio and at a public meeting to explain council policy.
I have seen a few chief executives in my time and in my opinion Mr Boden is doing a good job and fully deserves our support, as do our senior education officials – whose professional advice the council has unwisely ignored yet again.
I wish I had the same confidence in some of my fellow councillors, who seem determined to put off, until after the next SIC elections in May 2017, the unpalatable but necessary decisions we should be taking now about the future of education in Shetland.
Councillor Jonathan Wills
Independent
Lerwick South ward
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