Peeblesshire News | News | Schools and refuse collection to suffer in strikes

Friday, 5th December, 2008

Published: Tuesday, 19th August, 2008 12:30

Schools and refuse collection to suffer in strikes

By David O'Leary

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Scottish Borders Council is bracing itself for the disruption brought when thousands of key staff members strike tomorrow. (Wed 20)

The council hopes that services will not come to a grinding halt but several schools in the area are to close and refuse collection is also set to suffer.

While the planned industrial action does not include teaching staff, it does affect some school support staff and where schools or nurseries cannot maintain adequate staff ratios to ensure pupil safety they will be closed.

The current list of schools that will definitely be closed on Wednesday is shown below. At present, all other schools should be open as usual.

For the schools that are open, there will be no school lunches on Wednesday and it is therefore important that parents send their child to school with a packed lunch. A packed lunch will be provided to all pupils who are entitled to free school meals.

This strike may affect some school transport and so pupils should follow the standard guidance: if no bus arrives after 20 minutes, pupils should go (or be taken) home. Parents can of course transport their child to school themselves, but if so they must make arrangements to collect their child at the end of the day.

All schools are expected to be open as normal on Thursday 21st August 2008.

Primary Schools that will be closed: Ayton, Burnfoot, Earlston, Glendinning Terrace, Newcastleton, Reston, Stirches - but Stirches nursery class will be open, Trinity, Howdenburn and Newtown St Boswells.

Nursery classes that will be closed: Parkside and Coldstream

Secondary schools that will be closed: Earlston, Galashiels Academy, Hawick and Kelso

Additional Support facilities: Certain classes in Langlee Support Centre and Howdenburn School House.

The council is also working to provide as normal a refuse collection service as possible

The extent of the strike will not be known for certain until Wednesday and normal refuse collection schedules will be given priority where possible.

The Council's advice to householders is: If your refuse is due to be collected on Wednesday, put your bin out as normal. If your refuse is not collected on Wednesday, please leave your bin out and it will be collected as soon as possible.

Other Community Recycling Centres, Transfer Stations and the Landfill may also be affected, but again, the full extent will not be known until Wednesday.

If you plan on visiting a CRC ,Transfer Station or Landfill on Wednesday, please call the Council first on 01835 825111 or look at the website to check on the situation.

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