IR 43475: June follow-up request and response SECONDARY-SOURCE TRANSCRIPT Reproduced from the campaign’s retained press briefing and FOI evidence pack, pages 11–12. The request timestamp is 3 June 2026 at 08:13. The original review notice separately confirms a response dated 3 July. This is not an original council response file. Council redactions are retained. Email addresses and telephone numbers have been removed from this public transcript where present. Text extraction may omit image-only content and alter table alignment; gaps are not evidence that an original page was blank. --- SOURCE PDF PAGE 11 --- Banchory-Devenick School - Press Briefing and FOI Evidence Pack - Prepared by Kevin Forbes Appendix B - Follow-on FOI response to request dated 03/06/2026 Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 ("The Act") Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your request dated 03/06/2026 08:13, for the following information. This is a follow on to IR 43081. Requesting details of financial analysis and decision making, legal advice, political and member briefings and learning estate reviews. We confirm that the Council holds the following information, which we believe satisfies your request. 1. Financial Analysis and Decision-Making All spreadsheets, calculations, financial models and cost estimates used in support of the recommendation to commence consultation on the closure of Banchory-Devenick School. No additional information held other than previously provided in ECS report. Any documents showing projected revenue savings arising from closure. Not held but will form part of the statutory consultation document which is in development. Any documents showing projected maintenance savings arising from closure. No additional information held other than previously provided in ECS report. Any documents showing projected staffing savings arising from closure. Not held. Any documents showing projected transport costs associated with closure. Not held; will form part of the statutory consultation document which is in development. Any documents comparing: retaining the school; repairing the school; relocating pupils; permanent closure. No additional information held other than previously provided in ECS report. 2. Legal Advice and Risk Assessment The documents disclosed refer to legal advice being sought and legal sign-off being obtained. Please provide dates on which legal advice was requested, the questions submitted to Legal Services, any briefing notes, summaries, reports or risk assessments produced as a result of legal advice, and any records identifying legal risks associated with closure proposals. Aberdeenshire Council has identified information within the scope of all parts of your request. However, all information held which relates to the seeking, provision, content, or outcome of legal advice is being withheld in its entirety. This includes: - Dates on which legal advice was requested, where disclosure would reveal the timing and context of legal engagement - Questions submitted to Legal Services - Briefing notes, summaries, reports or risk assessments derived from or reflecting legal advice - Records identifying legal risks where these are informed by, or would reveal, legal advice Although some elements of your request may appear factual in nature, in this case they are not separable from the substance of the legal advice. Disclosure of even limited information (such as dates, framing of risks, or the fact that issues were referred for legal advice) would enable inferences to be drawn about the content and focus of that advice, thereby undermining legal professional privilege. Exemption Applied: Section 36(1) of FOISA (Confidentiality in Legal Proceedings). Public Interest Test: the Council considered the public interest in favour of disclosure and in favour of maintaining the exemption, concluding that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs disclosure. 3. Political and Member Briefings Learning Estates officers met with ward members on 10/02/26 and informed them of what was happening and they were invited to the parent meetings. Council co-leaders were provided with a briefing which contained the content of the ECS report previously provided, the only additional information is the following: Next Steps Initial engagement with parents on 5 March 2026 to: - Update on facilities situation - Advise of intention to progress statutory consultation on closure (a report will be presented to Education & Children Services Committee on 26 March 2026) - Notify that Banchory Devenick School will relocate to Fishermoss School as a 'school-within-a-school' after the Easter break to mitigate risk of disruption to learning and to mitigate any Health & Safety risks - Advise that home to school transport will be provided for in-zone pupils, and transport from Banchory Devenick School for OOZ/City pupils - Emphasise that if we don't do a 'managed move' and the boiler fails, there will be an emergency move overnight causing disruption to learning. 4. Learning Estate Review --- SOURCE PDF PAGE 12 --- Banchory-Devenick School - Press Briefing and FOI Evidence Pack - Prepared by Kevin Forbes The committee report states that closure would likely have been recommended as part of the wider Learning Estate Review irrespective of the boiler issue. Please provide all Learning Estate Review documents referring to Banchory-Devenick School. Review for Portlethen Cluster has not yet commenced. All documents relating to the Learning Estates Review to date are provided on the engage page. Any scoring matrices used to assess school viability. SWOT and scoring matrix templates provided as Appendix 1 and 2. Any reports ranking schools by viability, utilisation, sustainability or strategic importance. Review not commenced as per above. Any reports identifying schools for potential closure. There are no reports identifying potential schools for closure. Any documents discussing Banchory-Devenick School prior to December 2025. Not held. 5. Pre-December 2025 Discussions Please provide copies of any documents, reports, emails, meeting notes, presentations, briefing papers or internal communications created before 1 December 2025 which discuss closure, mothballing, amalgamation, relocation, viability, sustainability, estate rationalisation or future use of Banchory-Devenick School. Not held. 6. Alternatives to Closure Please provide all documents created to date which identify, assess, score, compare, reject or otherwise discuss alternatives to permanent closure, including but not limited to minimum repair options and phased repair programmes. Please find combined attached as Appendix 3. For shared management arrangements, revised staffing structures, community partnership arrangements, shared use models, mothballing and temporary closure options, the Council referred to pre-engagement activity including a survey and drop-in session. Yours faithfully Freedom of Information Co-ordinator Education & Children's Services: Education