RURAL schools have been taken out of the firing line as East Lothian Council seeks to save millions of pounds in the coming years.

Fifteen budget-saving options had been identified by local authority officials, including closing a rural school and limiting free home-to-school transport for pupils.

READ MORE: 15 options the council is considering to save money

But Councillor Norman Hampshire, the local authority’s acting leader, has pledged that his minority Labour administration won’t put forward either of those cuts when it unveils its budget plans to councillors later this month.

And he launched an attack on opposition groups within the local authority, accusing them of “cheap political point scoring” as councillors prepare to debate the budget for the next three years.

Mr Hampshire said that the council’s published option of closing a rural school operating at less than 50 per cent capacity – both Stenton and Humbie Primary Schools fall into this category – had now been ruled out following public consultation, as had the proposal to give free home-to-school transport only to secondary pupils living three miles from school, instead of the current two-mile distance.

These two options could have saved the local authority £850,000, said Mr Hampshire.

But he said: “I wanted to start the year clearly outlining the administration’s view on the money-saving proposals put forward by officers on rural schools and home-to-school transport. We will not be accepting these proposals and will not close any local schools.

“However, we are facing an onslaught on funding for our essential services which so many local people rely on.

“We receive 70 per cent of our income from the Scottish Government and it is cutting our funding for 2018/19 by 2.4 per cent, one of the largest cuts for any local authorities. This is a devastating blow to our local services.

“In the coming weeks I will be campaigning to stop the cuts‎ and will be writing to Derek Mackay MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, to highlight the impact they will have on our communities.

“I am asking local people to support our petition to stop the cuts and send a clear message that East Lothian needs fair funding.”

READ MORE: Campaign launched to save Stenton Primary School

Verity Sinclair, chairwoman of Stenton Primary School’s parent council, was delighted with the pledge not to close a rural school.

She said: “I am thrilled. I got a letter from Councillor Shamin Akhtar [saying the council would not close any local schools] and we are very, very pleased.

“We are now looking forward to our 140th anniversary and the start of our new shared headteacher [Ronnie Taylor, who will also be headteacher of Innerwick Primary School], who starts on Monday.”

The Labour administration faces a tough challenge to get its still-to-be-unveiled budget approved when it goes before the full council next month, with both the Conservative opposition and the SNP Group making it clear they will not back some of the options under consideration.

The Conservatives said last month they would not support rural school closures, home to school transport cuts or parking charges in town centres – all suggested options.

The SNP Group also opposed town centre parking charges and called for coastal car park fees to be scrapped.

But Mr Hampshire criticised the two parties for stating what they would not accept rather than coming up with solutions to meet the shortfall in funding.

He said: “Given that the austerity they say they oppose is a direct result of decisions taken by both the UK Tory and the SNP Scottish Governments, it would have been more productive if either or both of them had opposed the decision by their own parties to greatly reduce the funding available for the council.

“East Lothian Labour Group has had to deal with significant reductions in our budget for many years but because we have developed a robust financial strategy, which has been praised by all our external auditors, we have been able to protect our communities and our staff from the worst effects of the austerity passed down to us.”

He warned that the administration would not be “held to ransom by our political opponents who see an opportunity for cheap political point-scoring”.

Mr Hampshire said they were putting at risk a successful financial strategy which had rescued the council from “chaos”.

He said: “The Tories have set out what they won’t do to balance the budget, while the SNP make a range of spending commitments. It is noticeable that neither the Tories nor the SNP offer any solutions to the significant shortfall in East Lothian’s budget.

“They need to seriously consider the damage they could inflict on East Lothian by insisting on conditions that box themselves into a corner before seeing the administration’s proposals.”

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay MSP insists that if local authorities introduce a three per cent rise in council tax they will have a real-terms increase in funding in the coming year.

He said: “The Scottish Government has continued to ensure that our partners in local government receive a fair funding settlement.

“We have protected day-to-day local government spending, while increasing the capital budget.”

East Lothian Council expects to have to make savings of nearly £40million over the next five years.