ANGRY Rosyth parents have protested outside Inverkeithing High School over controversial proposed changes to school catchment areas.

Tensions were particularly high as parents met Fife Council education officials at the school last Wednesday night at the final public meeting before the consultation closed on Monday.

If the plan goes ahead, Camdean and Kings Road pupils will be moved from Dunfermline High to Inverkeithing in August 2019.

Changes need to be made as the council deals with looming capacity issues at Woodmill High School caused by the eastern expansion of Dunfermline.

Many parents on Wednesday remarked that they had "no confidence" in the education and children's services committee after they twice rejected other proposals before the current option was presented by officials. A previous option which would have seen Masterton Primary pupils go to Inverkeithing was thrown out by councillors in October.

Rosyth councillor Andrew Verrecchia said: "The option to send Rosyth kids to Inverkeithing has already been rejected twice so why is now OK?"

Head of education and children's services Shelagh McLean reiterated that the current proposal had not yet been accepted by councillors and it had never been to committee before.

The previous option also involved Kings Road children being sent to Inverkeithing but Camdean pupils remaining at Dunfermline.

"In the last proposal, the committee said they did not want to split up Camdean and Kings Road primary schools because of their close links and it would have also created another anomaly in the boundaries, something we are trying to eliminate," Ms McLean said.

"This proposal is robust."

Several concerns were also made about the current state of Inverkeithing High School which is deemed a category 'C' building by the council – the poorest measure in terms of condition.

Parents said the building was "not fit for purpose" and with an estimated £1million needed for additional accommodation, and claimed it didn't make sense that the council was causing capacity problems at Inverkeithing when it was the very reason why they were re-zoning catchment areas in the first place.

Ms McLean stated: "I would stress that Inverkeithing is fit for purpose – it's a good building and it will be part of our estate going forward.

"The reason we put buildings into a category is so we know where to reinvest.

"What we will be building cannot be described as 'huts' in the traditional sense but rather additional accommodation which is of high quality and will fit in with the aesthetics of the surrounding buildings."

When asked how spending £1m was best value, Ms McLean added that the education budget was up for renewal and officers would be making clear that the £1m capital needed was a priority, but part of achieving best value is that the council used their "school buildings and resources to maximum effect".

Fife Council have stated that a brand-new school will be needed to deal with numbers from proposed developments in the area by the early 2020s but capacity will be made available at the existing schools, where appropriate, to support the early phases of development.

One parent accused Fife Council of sitting on money from developers after Ms McLean explained how it was difficult to get money from them to build high schools when there was still capacity left in some of the school estate. He also accused the officer of "development-bashing".

Ms McLean said she didn't know how much money was there but that could be published and that developers were "essential" to the Fife economy.

"We have a robust system but it would be very difficult to come to the public five years ahead when the situation is likely to change – we start proceedings when we think it's an appropriate time," she added.

"We have used contributions to build primary schools with the most recent being Carnegie."

The proposal will now be submitted to Education Scotland for review and the final consultation report will be published on August 13.