Report due on future of city nurseries

A REPORT on the future of two city nurseries will be published next month.

Education bosses want to close Princess Elizabeth and High School Yards nurseries in July this year.

A public consultation has been carried out and a full report on it will be available on February 10.

Councillors will then take a decision on March 10 on whether to keep the nurseries open or whether to close them.

Education chiefs want to close the nurseries because they argue they are both "significantly" under-capacity and pupils can be accommodated in other nursery schools in the city.

They say that the roll of 21 children in High School Yards just off the Cowgate - which has the capacity for 40 pupils - is the third lowest in the city and the average cost per pupil is 6468 compared with the city average of 5754.

Princess Elizabeth in Prestonfield has just 20 children, the second lowest roll in the nursery school estate, and the average cost per pupil is 6301.

Closing the nurseries would save the council 200,000 per year.