LABOUR Councillor for the Garnock Valley, John Bell, has slammed North Ayrshire Council for what he sees as a lack of consultation over the site of the new Garnock school campus at Longbar.

The councillor – along with local residents – has also voiced concerns over safety of school children accessing the new school along the busy B777.

Following a council meeting to brief councillors about the submission of the planning application for the project, Councillor Bell said: “This so-called consultation is totally inadequate for a complex project like the new Garnock Campus.

“Despite the real concerns expressed about the distance and safety of walking routes to the remote Longbar site, the consultation provides little information on how pedestrians will access the campus never mind outline the works which must take place to improve the safety of routes from the towns.” He claims the purchase of the land will cost in the region of £1million – money he says could have been saved if land at North Lochshore earmarked by the previous Labour administration had been used for the new campus.

This land belongs to Scottish Enterprise and would have been used at no cost after the Labour council agreed to build housing there in addition to the school providing the infrastruture to access the area.

The current SNP administration removed provision for houses to be built on the site causing the agreement with Scottish Enterprise to fall through. The Scottish Government has since reinstated planning permission for houses on the site.

Cllr Bell continued: “An extra £1million would have been available for these facilities had the school been built on North Lochshore, a site offered for free, rather than the SNP’s remote and costly site at Longbar.

“Now, ironically, much of the Longbar site is to be left as marsh land as it has been deemed too expensive to provide adequate drainage.” Jerry O’Hanlon, a resident of Daisybank in Glengarnock adjacent to the proposed site, has written to NAC expressing his worries over safety. He said: “To propose that the children who currently attend Glengarnock Primary will have to walk a further 600m to and from school on wet miserable autumn and winter days is a disgrace.

“The decision that children from Kilbirnie and Beith should walk to this school in autumn and winter months given that our climate is becoming even wetter is nothing short of foolhardy.

“Not all accidents are reported to the police so basing decisions for road safety on statistics is not always reliable. There have been fatalities on this road including the areas where there is a 30 mph speed limit.” A spokesperson for North Ayrshire Council said: “We recognise the importance of ensuring pupils can travel to school safely. Although school travel is not dealt with directly as part of the planning process, all relevant comments made during the pre-application and current statutory planning consultation will be fed into a detailed assessment of school travel.

“This will provide a more detailed approach to school travel, including the provision of safe walking and cycling routes to the campus. We have already developed plans to extend existing pedestrian and cycle routes in Beith to connect directly to the campus site. This will allow pupils arriving from Beith to walk along a route where a pavement is provided. In addition, cycle storage is provided which will encourage cycling.” “It is anticipated that a decision will be made on the application by the Council’s Planning Committee in late July.”