SNP councillors lost a bid to save an outdoor education centre yesterday as North Lanarkshire Council voted on its Budget.

Almost 12,000 people have signed an online petition calling on the Labour-led administration to “stop the proposed closure of Kilbowie Outdoor Centre” in Oban.

Parents protested in the weekend rain in a bid to safeguard the site, which will close next year.

The decision had been taken last week, but was only finalised yesterday when the local authority’s Budget was agreed.

The opposition SNP group raised a point or order in an attempt to prevent the closure. However, this fell and last night Jim Logue, leader of North Lanarkshire Council, said the authority had been “faced with choices that no councillor wished to take”.

The row is a mirror image of that in Glasgow, where opposition Labour councillors have criticised the SNP administration’s decision to shutter its outdoor education centre, Blairvadach in Argyll and Bute.

READ MORE: Glasgow's poorest to be hit by cuts in outdoor education

Outdoors expert and journalist Cameron McNeish is amongst those to speak out against that move, calling it a “disgrace” which is “robbing schoolchildren of the chance to experience the great outdoors”.

Yesterday North Lanarkshire councillor Kirsten Larsen said attending Kilbowie was a “rite of passage” for primary seven pupils in the area.

Afterwards, Logue defended the Budget, which includes a tax rise of 4.84%, the equivalent of £1.08 per week to those in Band D properties. It was agreed in the face of a £31 million funding shortfall.

He said: “The fact is that local government revenue grant from the Scottish Government falls far short of the money required to continue to fund council services at current levels. So we had a difficult task. No councillor enters local government to make these kinds of cuts.

“However, the council has approved a budget which does its very best to protect the most vulnerable people in North Lanarkshire. Some savings we had to take are extremely difficult.

READ MORE: Blocking the Budget would be 'a blow' to child poverty spending

“For example, we have always been one of very few councils in Scotland not to charge for community alarms.We have had to increase the amount of money we charge for special waste uplifts, reduce green space maintenance and remove festive lighting funded by the council from town centres.

“However, we have also been able to reject some savings options and protect local communities. For example, we could have increased the limits which qualify pupils for free school transport.We could have removed breakfast clubs and all school crossing patrols. We could have removed the school of football at Braidhurst High School, and funding for school bands including the world-champion North Lanarkshire Schools Pipe Band. All of these were rejected.”

Before the session, SNP councillor Danish Ashraf said his group was “using every angle we can to get the decision the people want”.

Afterwards, those commenting on the Save Kilbowie Outdoor Centre Facebook page said they were “gutted” and “ashamed”.

One posted: “[it’s a] disgrace the one week in the children’s thirteen years of school they get away from the classrooms and go outdoors [will be taken away], especially for those who are not academic.”

The online petition states: “The likely reality is that Glasgow’s young people will lose out on the experiences that many generations have had and valued. Don’t let this happen.”