ST MARTIN’S Primary School parents and parent council representatives screamed “betrayed” and “Judas” at some members of West Dunbartonshire Council’s education committee when they met last Wednesday.

The outrage followed a decision by 10 votes to four not to re-build the Renton school and instead invest £850,000 to “patch” it up to make it watertight and meet health and safety requirements and review the situation in two year’s time.

This is a decision which many parents believe will lead ultimately to the building’s closure. They instead had asked the council to spend £19.7m in re-building the school.

Parent council member Drew MacEoghainn claimed they had been “betrayed” by their local councillors, and yelled “Judas” at Ellen McBride, representing the Archdiocese of Glasgow Philip Archbishop Tartaglia, after she sided with the SNP administration, breaking with tradition and exercising her right to vote.

As he left the meeting from the public benches Mr MacEoghainn shouted: “It’s a spineless administration with no political background.”

During the meeting, Councillor Martin Rooney said: “St Martin’s have been hung out to dry by the administration.

“The decision taken means that in two years we will come back and it will result in closure. The ten votes today were votes for closure.”

Labour colleague, Councillor Daniel Lennie, added: “This is closure by stealth.”

Council leader Jonathan McColl said: “At this stage we are not voting for closure. This is the best we can do.

“It is simply not feasible to justify a new school which has so few kids on their school roll.”

Speaking after the meeting, Karen Conaghan, educational services committee convener, said: “We as a group have done a lot of soul searching over the issue and gone out of our way to listen to the parents of St Martin’s.

“It was a difficult decision to come to and I stand by my comment that once the improvements are complete to St Mary’s and the new Renton campus opens parents will have a better choice than they do just now.

“We are being asked today to move on with plans to build a new Renton campus with the primary school, language unit and nursery provision on the same site.

“We are also being asked to proceed with the refurbishment and enhancement plans for St Mary’s Primary.

“Unfortunately, despite taking more time to fully explore the options for St Martin’s, taking time to listen further to the views of parents and carers we cannot provide what those parents and carers want, namely a new build for St Martin’s or a co-location with Renton.”

After the meeting Ms McBride, who came in for a tirade of abuse from parents, told the Reporter: “If they want to call me Judas there is not much I can do about that. I discussed the matter with the Archbishop, as I discuss a lot of matters with him. I voted the way I felt was best for the children.

“I had a mandate from the Archbishop to vote the way I felt fit.”