However, the Provost of West Dunbartonshire Council, Douglas McAllister, who represents the area, told the Post: “I will not be allowing that to happen.” The proposed closure of the Duntocher school is one of a series of proposals identified in a report that outlines how the council aims to address its £17 million funding shortfall over the next three years.

Closing Carleith, which currently has 89 pupils, would save the council around £230,000.

Under the proposals pupils would be moved to Goldenhill Primary School, which is just under five-years-old and just over one mile from the current Carleith campus.

The report states: “There is space for the new pupils and the council is confident they could provide a high-quality learning environment that would benefit the children. A full consultation process would be undertaken with parents, staff and stakeholders if this option was approved [by councillors].” Provsot McAllister added: “The closure of Carleith Primary School will not be happening.

I certainly won’t be supporting any proposal to close it.

“The reason we’re in this situation is because, now that the referendum is over, the Scottish Government has dealt a hard blow to councils. Our grant funding from the government has been cut and we need to find sufficient funding.

“Every officer across the council has been asked to make these proposals and they include many difficult decisions for elected members to make.

“I was delighted to be down there at Carleith Primary School last week - there are 21 pupils due to start in August and they will be starting.

“As long as I am the provost of West Dunbartonshire Council I will not be allowing that to happen - I won’t support any closures of schools in my ward.” News of the proposed closure comes less than six months after West Dunbartonshire Council told the Post no decision had been made on the future of Carleith, Clydemuir and Linnvale primaries. In August it listed the schools’ buildings as being amongst the worst in West Dunbartonshire, adding all three were under occupied.

Joyce White, chief executive of West Dunbartonshire Council, said: “Every council in Scotland is facing significantly reduced funding from the government in the coming years and needing to take difficult choices to balance their budget. In West Dubartonshire’s case we have an estimated funding shortfall of around £17 million between 2015 and 2018. In recent months the council’s senior management team has identified just under £9 million of internal efficiencies which we will begin putting in place.

“That still leaves us needing to find a further £8.2 million of savings and this budget document provides a summary of proposed savings that have been identified to fill that gap.

“It is important to be clear that the scale of the budget challenges is so large that simply scaling back activity at the margins.. is no longer an option.”