Residents already unhappy about last October’s closure of Wellwood Primary School are now furious after finding out some of the displaced kids will have to be taught in huts, all because McLean Primary School doesn’t have the capacity to accommodate them.

Chris Ingram, chair of Wellwood Community Council, said, “We were told with blunt arrogance that there was no need to keep the school open and that McLean Primary had more than enough room to accommodate the children from Wellwood without any hutted accommodation.

“Is Fife Council’s education department admitting to making a major error in calculations and not listening to the community or are they admitting to lying to us about their projections so they could close a small village school and rip the heart out of a community?

“The situation at McLean is both angering and upsetting. Fife Councils own ‘under one roof’ policy advocates the removal of hutted accommodation from all schools. This was one of the principal reasons Wellwood Primary was closed yet now it is clearly being brushed under the carpet.” The outrage came about after the west planning committee backed Perth-based I&H Brown’s £100million development in Wellwood which would see 1100 new homes and a new primary school built. One of the conditions was that the primary school be moved further east, nearer to the village, but a report also detailed the need for “additional modular classrooms” at McLean to accommodate pupils during the initial stage of the development.

For some Wellwood parents the news has come as a kick in the teeth.

Aileen Christie, who was part of the group campaigning against the closure (pictured), said, “All the parents ever asked for was for them to wait until this new school was opened before closing Wellwood. Now that the building is going to be even closer, it shows that would have been the sensible thing to do.

“With the new school they could have all moved over there together instead of being split up. It could have worked out so different."

However Fife Council said that regardless of whether Wellwood remained open, the amount of new pupils would always have outstripped the places available and temporary accommodation would have been needed anyway.

Shelagh McLean, head of education and children’s services, said, “The decision to close Wellwood was based on the existing pupil population and the projected population based on the existing housing within the catchments. These pupils have now been accommodated within McLean without the need to bring in any additional temporary accommodation.

“The proposed development at Wellwood generates the need for a new primary school to accommodate a new pupil population and this has been set out within the Fife Structure Plan. This was all openly discussed as part of the consultation process. We are currently working with the developers to assess the proposed phasing of this housing development and the associated impact on education provision in this area until the new school is built. One possible solution being explored is for the developer to offer temporary accommodation to provide capacity for the new pupils generated from the housing development before they complete the new school.”