LABOUR councillors are accusing North Ayrshire Council’s SNP-led administration of ‘railroading’ a decision to purchase land for the new Garnock Academy campus at Longbar – a move expected to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The proposal was approved in private by the Council cabinet on December 10 with no public or press present – a legal requirement due to the commercially-sensitive nature of the discussions.

A group of Labour and Independent councillors ‘called in’ the decision for examination by the Council’s Scrutiny Committee – the group of councillors that oversees Council business – before it was put to the full council.

However, the Scrutiny Committee was bypassed and Labour councillors are claiming they were not given adequate time to look into the consequences of the proposal before it was added as an urgent agenda item and voted through by the full council on December 18.

Labour Councillors Peter McNamara and John Bell made a further attempt to call in the decision during the full council meeting but it was voted down.

Councillor Alex Gallagher, Vice-Chair of the Scrutiny Committee, said: “The job of the Scrutiny Committee is to oversee decisions of the Administration, and it was set up to address precisely this sort of situation. But we are being denied any chance to do so in this instance.

“The usual process is for the papers to be available for five days before Scrutiny Committee meetings which allows time for proper investigation of the facts and implications of any decision. In this case we got the papers delivered and were asked to make an immediate decision.

“In my opinion this is not acceptable. It shows the SNP’s contempt for the Scrutiny Committee and indeed for the very idea of scrutiny. It also denies the possibility that this important decision can be given the oversight it clearly deserves.” The previous Labour administration of NAC had targeted land belonging to Scottish Enterprise at North Lochshore as the site of the new school campus in a development that would have included housing.

However, this was withdrawn by the current SNP-led Council.

The NAC Labour group say this site would have cost the Council nothing and are also expressing concerns that the newly-chosen site at Longbar sits above old mine works.

Speaking after the full Council meeting, Councillor McNamara said: “The original decision to spend this money was taken in private by the SNP Cabinet and the papers were only presented to Councillors at the very last minute, leaving no time for an in-depth understanding of the proposals.

“We have just passed a budget which is full of cuts to vital services. There was land available at no cost to build this school and it is unacceptable that this decision to spend a large amount of money should be railroaded through in this manner.

“There is also the question of the potential undermining of the site, an issue which has had no public spotlight or questioning.” Councillor McNamara also commented on the decision to move Councillor Tony Gurney from his cabinet post as portfolio holder for Education and Attainment to Environment and Infrastructure as ‘extremely significant’.

The move came alongside several other cabinet moves.

Council Leader Willie Gibson hit back at the accusations calling them ‘bitter and irresponsible politics of the worst kind’.

He continued: “The call in was a delaying tactic by the opposition when they sensed they were losing the argument.

"A delay would mean that Garnock Valley might miss out altogether on a new school campus.

“The original call in request only referred to a couple of items in the proposal, however, we then acceded to a request to have a full discussion at the Provost’s [full council] Meeting.

"A further call in would only have delayed the project.” Commenting on the cost of the project, Councillor Gibson said: “The details are still commercially sensitive, however, all costings have been done independently.” Councillor Gibson also called any links between Tony Gurney’s move from Education to Environment as ‘abolute nonsense’.

He said: “I made several changes to the cabinet and the timing is not significant.

"The new portfolio holder, Councillor John Bruce, has a background in teaching so he is well placed to lead us through our full review of the Council’s approach to education.”