THE leader of the council has received a barrage of criticism after he questioned the widespread closure of the town’s schools.

Coun David Renard took to Twitter this morning to vent his frustration that the adverse weather conditions had resulted in a significant number of Swindon’s schools keeping their doors shut.

He said: “There are no excuses that so many Swindon schools are closed when the roads are perfectly passable, causing huge inconvenience to parents.”

More than 30 schools had to close today due to the snowy conditions.

The main reasons given for doing so were the inability of staff to get there and the possible health and safety problems presented by bringing pupils in.

But Coun Renard was immediately challenged by people who accused him of "publicly judging" the schools for acting in the best interests of their staff and pupils.

Twitter user Sarah Fenwick said: “Huge inconvenience to parents? But schools are not a childcare facility. The safety of children and staff is more important.”

To which Coun Renard, who claimed his top priority was the “interests of the children and parents”, said: “You can’t get an education if you’re not at school, and plenty of other schools have opened.”

Other people labelled Coun Renard’s comments "disgraceful".

One man, Richard Voyce, suggested he should spend his time “on something productive rather than wasting it on Twitter being critical of others”.

Labour councillor Jim Robbins (Mannington and Western) also criticised the leader’s remarks. He said: “I was very surprised to see David Renard’s tweet.

“I know how much headteachers and senior staff struggle over these tough decisions, weighing up the chances of staff coming in from long distances, how the weather will be, how icy the schools and paths may be, and will there be sufficient numbers of staff available to offer safe staff/student ratios?

“For the council leader to write such an ill-informed tweet, especially when he used to be the cabinet member in charge of children’s’ services and schools, beggars belief.”

The Ridgeway School announced on Sunday evening: “We have many teachers that travel from outside Swindon, including some that drive from Weston-super-Mare, Bristol and Bath and others that live in outlying villages which have been cut off by the snow.

“It is not possible to open the school when so many staff will be unable to reach the school in treacherous conditions.”

Coun Renard maintained that other schools in Wiltshire had managed to open without too much difficulty.

He was not able to provide further clarification before the Adver went to press.