Councillors reject Catholic school working group

Thousands of Roman Catholics live in Aberdeen

Aberdeen councillors have rejected a bid to create a new working group to look into creating a Roman Catholic secondary school in the city.

A meeting heard that Aberdeen is unusual for cities of its size in having just three dedicated Catholic primaries and no secondary.

Dundee, Edinburgh, Perth, Stirling and Glasgow all have Catholic high schools.

The council voted 24 to 18 against creating the working group.

A sometimes heated meeting of the full council heard some members state for the record their religious faith, as they debated the future of the city's Catholic schools.

Campaigners had argued Aberdeen needs to build a Catholic secondary school to ensure young people of faith are not "left behind".

A report from officials said a consultation had found a Catholic secondary was unlikely to meet the minimum roll threshold of 1,000 pupils.

The most recent census found there were more than 19,000 Roman Catholics living in the city.