• ‘Shoddy treatment’ of dinner lady with nearly 30 years service

Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP Angus MacNeil is calling on the Comhairle to abandon the sudden plans to close Eoligarry School canteen and to keep promises made to Barra parents.

He has also slammed the local authority for the ‘shoddy and awful’ treatment of the School’s Cook who raised an issue regarding ventilation in the kitchen only to told this would mean closure of the kitchen and the loss of her current job.

He said: “Parents of pupils from Eoligarry School are dismayed that since the cook registered a problem with the ventilation system in the kitchen, the approach of the Comhairle is not to sort the problem but to close the kitchen.

“It does concern me that when a Comhairle employee raises a Health & Safety concern that the problem-solving method favoured by the Comhairle is not to deal with the problem but to threaten to close her place of work.  What signal does that now send to other Comhairle employees who may want to raise H&S concerns?

“Parents were promised in November that nothing would change at the school and the Comhairle should honour that promise.”