SCHOOLS across South Lanarkshire would have shared an extra million pounds if proposals by the area’s Conservative councillors had been backed by other parties.

The opposition Tories wanted the council to boost funds available for head teachers throughout the authority.

It would have meant an additional £22 per pupil for use as schools thought best, with the goal of helping teachers address the specific needs of their youngsters.

The measure was part of the Conservative Group’s proposed 2018/19 budget for South Lanarkshire Council.

As members of the independent and Liberal Democrat group joined forces with the minority SNP administration, it was however able to get its own plans through.

Councillor Alex Allison is the leader of the opposition Conservative Group. He said: “We were determined to show this authority could take real steps to mitigate the SNP government’s education failures.

“That’s why our proposed budget for South Lanarkshire would have seen the council give more money to head teachers for use as they judged best.

“If other parties had backed our plans there would now be an extra million pounds for the area’s schools. Sadly they opted to instead put through an SNP budget that is designed to sound good, but will likely achieve little.”

He explained: “The budget put forward by the council’s SNP administration, and ultimately passed with the help of the independents and Liberal Democrats, sought to grab headlines by announcing it would recruit more teachers. 

“But schools are already struggling to recruit the teachers they need, with many posts sitting vacant for long periods of time. Creating more posts won’t help anyone when we can’t fill those we’ve already got.

“Our communities need more than words. That’s why South Lanarkshire’s Conservative councillors want to give extra money to schools, so they can use it to actually make a difference for our children and young people.”