West Lothian’s council leader has published his correspondence with government ministers over ‘broken promises’ on funding St Kentigern’s Academy.
Labour leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick was furious at the assertion by the SNP opposition group last week that no promises had been made to give the council £15m towards the school rebuild.
The SNP group maintained its stance in their amendment brought to full council last week that : “No publicly available documentary evidence confirming such a formal commitment has been identified.”
Contacting the Local Democracy Reporting Service Councillor Fitzpatrick said: “As a clear rebuttal please find attached my letters to Jenny Gilruth, then Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills dated 25 November 2025, my spoken assertion is clear.”
Ms Gilruth, at the time, had ruled out funding the project through the Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP) because funding had already been committed to West Lothian to build new primary schools.
However, in his response to the Cabinet Secretary Councillor Fitzpatrick wrote: “Both myself and the Chair of Education Services were pleased that you took time to visit the school on 19 February this year. We were delighted by your comment that our request for £15 million towards the £35million cost was the ‘most deserving case’. We both had the clear impression of your strong undertaking to support our request.”
Mr Fitzpatrick also published a letter to the First Minister confirming that the two local MSP’s Angela Constance and Fiona Hyslop, in the last parliament, agreed that a bespoke financial intervention from the Scottish Government should be forthcoming.”
Labour backed a motion tabled by the Independent Executive councillor for Education, Andrew McGuire last week calling on the newly elected Scottish Government to make good a promise in the SNP election manifesto five months ago to fund the rebuild of St Kentigern’s. The motion also won the support of the Conservatives, Lib Dem and Reform councillor.
The Blackburn school saw 60% of its original building demolished after RAAC concrete panels were found in 2023.
The SNP amendment to last week’s full council meeting asserted that no mention of £15m had been promised by the government.
Instead, it called for the Chief Executive to write to Ms Gilruth, now appointed Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, welcoming the Scottish Government’s commitment to support for St Kentigern’s Academy and “seeking confirmation of the amount of funding to be provided, the mechanism through which it will be provided and the anticipated time-scale for payment.”
It also called on the Chief Executive to invite the new local SNP MSPs to support a call for funding and to invite the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Mairi McAllan to visit the rebuilt school and meet staff and pupils.
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
