OUR latest story from the Advertiser's archives winds back the clock 15 years to the revelation that at least one Helensburgh primary school was under threat of closure.

Amid public opposition the plans, eventually, came to nothing – but the anger of parents and councillors was clear to see from our report in the Advertiser on March 11, 2004...

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PLANS to refurbish or replace Helensburgh and Lomond’s crumbling schools could result in the closure of at least one primary school.

At a public meeting on Tuesday it emerged that a proposal put forward by one of the consortia bidding to run the area’s schools would see either St Joseph’s or Hermitage Primary closed and the other school’s pupils moved to “co-locate”.

This sparked accusations by a member of St Joseph’s school board that it was being sold to allow the replacement of Hermitage Academy.

At a full meeting of Argyll and Bute Council, to be held behind closed doors today (Thursday), councillors will decide which consortium will be chosen to carry out an extensive programme to replace Hermitage Academy with a new building and refurbish several other schools.

The group of private companies chosen would run the schools as a Non-Profit Distributing Organisation, with any profit pumped back into local education.

The proposals are likely to cause much debate throughout the area, with many contentious aspects including schools sharing the same land and the location of Hermitage Academy up for debate.

At the public meeting organised by Helensburgh Community Council, Councillor Billy Petrie said: “It’s common knowledge now that there’s to be a joint site with Hermitage Primary and St Joseph’s - and I don’t agree with that.

“It could be seen as a benefit to the council to have Hermitage Primary School and St Joseph’s on one location and allow houses to be built on the other. I certainly don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Stephen Gibson from St Joseph’s school board claimed the school would be closed to help fund the replacement for Hermitage Academy.

He said: “The knock-on effect would be we have a fantastic school at Hermitage Academy, and it will result in the loss of primary schools, particularly St Joseph’s, which would lose its separate identity.”

But Helensburgh Central Councillor John Tacchi said there would be two separate schools with separate identities, schools which would co-locate, meaning they would be built on the same site.

“If you look at models in other council areas there are two schools operating entirely independently but share common facilities that it is possible to share,” he said.

“Nobody is talking about merging schools in the sense that there is one head teacher and a group of teachers. It is co-location rather than merging.”