Council U-turn - press release 17 August 2009

Dundee City Council issued the following press release yesterday (17 August 2009). The Evening Telegraph published an article about this on p7 titled "School sites choice check":

SITES FOR NEW SCHOOLS

Dundee City Council is to meet with Scottish Government officials to finalise arrangements over the proposed sites for the new Lochee and West End primary schools, so that the near £20 million investment can proceed.

The city council believes that its plans represent the best possible options to improve educational facilities for primary pupils in the two areas, but it wants to ensure that there are no doubts remaining over the status of the sites under School Premises regulations.

Dundee City Council is to confirm if dispensation is required from the Scottish Government so that the projects can go ahead. The regulations were issued at a time when shared sites were not being actively pursued by local authorities. Since the regulations were issued a number of shared sites have been developed in Scotland.

A number of parents have raised questions around the regulations and it is hoped that once these have been clarified everyone can then concentrate on the development of the new schools.

The design process for the four new schools has now started. The new schools are intended to replace the current Lochee/Charleston and St Clement's primaries, along with new facilities for Park Place Primary and nursery and St Joseph's Primary.

A Dundee City Council education department spokesman said: "Since the original reports were unanimously approved by the education committee in January, extensive consultation followed and the committee then agreed to move forward with the plans.

"The committee also passed a report to create of a series of project boards that would develop the proposals for the new schools with input from as wide a range of the relevant people as possible.

"Now, as this process gets underway, the city council is looking to ensure that the situation on the size of the sites is clarified at a national level.

"Dundee contains only a limited number of available spaces where schools could be located."

"We have tried to ensure that the sites are relevant to population trends and would give us the best value for education for many years into the future.

"The investment of nearly £20 million in these new buildings would represent a significant improvement in educational facilities for many generations to come.

"To this end, we have been in correspondence with Scottish Government officials and are now looking to meet with representatives over these issues."