embracing nature of discussions at East Dunbartonshire’s education committee.

To be more precise, the forum in question is the education and leisure services committee. This wide remit allowed discussion to range from the stability of headstones in the local cemeteries to Higher Still (the two are perchance related). It was an ongoing cradle to the grave situation.

Alas, it is all change in Greater Bearsden. From next June the committee is to be restyled the education and culture committee. So, even if the word culture forces some councillors to reach for their guns as they say, cemeteries will be beyond the committee’s pale. If th councillors inter anything in the future, it is more likely to be Higher Still.

Still with the education and leisure committee, we note from last week’s meeting that East Dunbartonshire has saved pound;107,200 from this year’s teachers’ pay settlement. It had budgeted for a 3 per cent rise but the increase was only 2.5 per cent.

The report to the committee commented that the saving “may be needed to fund any pay award shortfall for APTamp;C staff”.

Or, to put it another way, money allocated to teachers’ salaries could end up in the pockets of the striking Unison staff who have been making life hell for teachers at Douglas Academy, Milngavie which is in, er, East Dunbartonshire.