The owner of a new Highland cinema has criticised a council decision that he says will result in him losing around £10,000 of school bookings and a chance to “break even”.
Hundreds of primary pupils were due to attend festive film screenings in Fort William before a decision was made by the local authority to suspend all school trips amid a significant rise in Covid cases amongst children.
Higher numbers of pupils travelling to schools by bus in rural areas is one reason being put forward by NHS Highland leaders for infections affecting the “majority” of pupils in some classes.
The decision on school trips was made around ten days ago, before details emerged of the new Omicron variant, said by the First Minister,Nicola Sturgeon to be the most challenging development in the pandemic for months.
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Highland Council said it was concerned about the risks of bringing large groups of children from different communities together.
Angus MacDonald funded the 130-screen cinema himself as a “gift to the town”and said December was the only month between October and Easter that his business and others in the Highlands had a chance of breaking even.
He is critical that the council did not inform organisations hosting school trips of its decision, which he said had not been replicated by other local authorities.
Kate Forbes, SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, who is also Finance Minister, has written to Highland Council on Mr MacDonald’s behalf.
“Suddenly they [the bookings] started getting cancelled one by one,” said Mr MacDonald.
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“We emailed Highland Council and the reply was very bland, it didn’t have anything specific at all.
“It seems to have been a very slap dash decision.
“We don’t know yet what the implications are for the new variant but it was certainly not in discussion ten days ago.
“Maybe they have been proved right but I would have thought that was a government decision.”
Mr MacDonald opened the 107-seat cinema and restaurant in September last year and has also opened a book shop on Fort William high street. His son Archie is behind a new multi-million pound expansion of the Highland Soap Company in the town.
“I have made an enormous investment for the benefit of the people of Lochaber. I think that a bit of help and courtesy from Highland Council would have been nice.
“Ironically I’ve been going round the schools giving business talks.”
Dr Tim Alison, Director of Public Health and Policy, told the council’s education committee on November 17: “We have a lot of Covid within the schools, particularly primary schools and that’s different.
“What is perhaps surprising is the amount of Covid in any one class and that we could get a majority of children testing positive.”
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He said the high number of cases may be due to differences in the way schools work in Highland areas, including more pupils travelling by bus which could be increasing the spread of the virus.
“We need to be constantly vigilant for spread of Covid and take the mitigation measures,” he said.
Updated guidance published by the Scottish Government last week stated that schools cannot hold “assemblies and other types of large group gatherings”, with traditional nativity plans appearing to fall into that category.
However, Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser highlighted the discrepancy in rules when public large gatherings including theatres can take place but the “important right of passage” of a school nativity remains banned.
A spokeswoman for Highland Council said: “Following our current school’s position statement, based on Public Health and national guidance for schools, The Highland Council have made the difficult decision to suspend festive school trips for 2021.
“The safety and wellbeing of pupils and staff remains a priority and we will continue to help to reduce the risk of spread of the virus in our schools and the wider community.
“The Highland Council operate a devolved school management system which allows individual schools to plan their own in-school seasonal activities.
“We remain hopeful that by keeping festive activities school based again this year, that we can all enjoy fun with family and friends during the holiday period.”
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