West Lothian Council Denied £15M for St Kentigern’s Academy

It's April 4th.

This is Edinburgh News Today, powered by AI.

I'm Cory with the story.

West Lothian Council just got turned down for 15 million pounds from the Scottish government

to finish rebuilding St. Kennegger and Academy.

The school had major issues with crumbling RAAC concrete, forcing them to rip out more

than half the original structure.

Now it's set to reopen later this year, after massive work.

The council already showed out 20 million of their own cash and borrowed the rest, but

without this grant, they'll be stuck repaying loans over 20 years, ballooning the cost

to 30 million pounds total.

Council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick is fired up, calling it a straight up broken promise

from the Education Secretary who visited last winter and pledged the funds.

He's written twice to First Minister John Swinney, stressing a pledge as a pledge, especially

for school serving deprived communities.

Luke Finance Minister Ivan McKee responded that there's no extra cash through the learning

and state investment program right now, but they're open to teaming up with councils

and trusts to improve school buildings.

Meanwhile, Swinney's office points out the council's getting nearly 500 million pounds

next year for services overall, plus past LEIP funds for other local projects.

Still, this leaves St. Kennegger and Limbo as talkstrag on.