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​In recent weeks and months – in fact, going pretty much all the way back to when I joined The Herald – we’ve been interested in something called ‘mothballing’.

This is a process by which a school or nursery can be temporarily closed, and is supposed to offer a means by which councils can keep a service open in the longer term even if pupil numbers fall to zero – in practice, however, we’ve found so many examples of councils bending the rules well past breaking point.

One of them is from Aberdeenshire, which as things stand is trying to mothball nurseries on the say-so of unelected officials who did not consult with families or communities beforehand. The council seems to have believed, or at least acted on the basis, that the rules don’t necessarily apply in their case, which is definitely (and obviously, if you read the rules in good faith) not true.

Lessons to Learn | How council calculations lead to busy nurseries being deemed 'under capacity'

But there has been another twist.

Last week, I was told that the council had actually contacted the government to ask for clarity on the mothballing rules, so I got in touch and asked them if this was true.

Their spokesperson told me that it was, and that they had asked the government to confirm the timeline of a review announced by the First Minister, but received no such information.

The next step was to go to the

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