New Portobello High School - on going issues

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 21 Jan 2008, 20:39

Story I missed from the EN on 14 January:

Our schools can't wait any longer

seanie · Post by **seanie** » 23 Jan 2008, 16:43

Officials have also ruled that Portobello Park is common good land which means court permission will be needed if plans to relocate the crumbling Portobello High School to the park go ahead.

The Council seems to have decided the park is a Common Good asset after all.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 24 Jan 2008, 07:25

Enjoying your exchange with Dave Connelly on the EN Comments section.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 24 Jan 2008, 17:50

From today's EN:

Schools plan set for court

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 25 Jan 2008, 09:57

No sarcastic comments to make then Bob? Porty?

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 25 Jan 2008, 13:58

What's left to say? PPAG lost the debate about where a new PHS should be built (once they belatedly admitted that a new school was required) on this forum, within the community and ultimately within the Council.

What remains is the question of funding and it's time the Scottish Government got their finger out and demonstrated that the education of young people in Scotland is something they value and not just something to play political football with.

The whole common good thing is just a red herring and at worst will only postpone what is already inevitable.

As for the suggestion being put about by PPAG supporters that the new school at Castlebrae will mean that a smaller PHS could be re-built on site - well that's ridiculous as Seanie has already demonstrated.

It's the usual mix of wishful thinking, re-writing history and being plain wrong.

Will that do?

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 28 Jan 2008, 10:45

Bob Jefferson wrote:and being plain wrong.

Will that do?

But they weren't "plain wrong". They were right.

.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 28 Jan 2008, 11:18

Well, as I understand it, Portobello Park was not included in the register of Common Good land but, following a review, the Council has decided that it should be.

As seanie has explained, both here and over on the EN comments section, that doesn't mean that a school cannot be built on Portobello Park and there are recent examples to illustrate this.

An expensive QC won't prevent PHS going on the park. I'm far more concerned by the disgraceful way the Scottish Government and the Council are dealing with the matter. While they prevaricate, we continue to spend millions of pounds a year patching up a building that is well past its sell-by date and the overall cost of its replacement continues to spiral.

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 28 Jan 2008, 11:22

Bob Jefferson wrote:Well, as I understand it, Portobello Park.

Well, as I understand it, Portobello Park never existed until the Council invented it for their own purposes very recently

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 08 Feb 2008, 20:14

From today's Herald:

Leaders clash over plan for new school

From today's Scotsman:

Decaying schools forced to shut

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 11 Feb 2008, 18:20

From today's EN:

Crumbling high's head boy slams 'prison' conditions

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 12 Feb 2008, 23:03

A new community high school on the park: visioning the new Portobello High.

This 8-minute DVD was the brainchild of students at Queen Margaret University, working with pupils at Portobello High School.

A powerful film, it explains in the childrens' own voices, what their hopes and dreams are for their new school.

Please watch it and play your part in delivering a new school for Portobello.

The DVD has been sent to all City Councillors and local MPs and MSPs and is available to view on Portobelly Telly:

Visioning a new PHS

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 13 Feb 2008, 19:52

From today's EN:

Trust proposal for new schools

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 14 Feb 2008, 17:55

Several letters of varying merit over the last day or so in the EN:

Estate is ideal place for new Porty High

Nothing smart in pupils' appearance

A new school please, not old debates

Porty head pupils deserve applause

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 15 Feb 2008, 15:37

From today's EN Letters Page (4th letter down):

Give pupils school that they deserve

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 15 Feb 2008, 16:33

More on Labour councillors' proposals for school trusts from publicprivatefinance.com:

Scottish councillors suggest PPP alternative

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 18 Feb 2008, 13:37

More gloomy news from the EN today:

'As the stand-off continues, the costs keep rising'

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 18 Feb 2008, 13:42

And dead horses being flogged on the Letters Page:

Concern exists over park use for school

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 18 Feb 2008, 23:13

More detail on Labour's alternative to PPP/PFI from Ewan Aitken's blog:

We annouced today proposals for Local School Building Trusts as a new way of delivering schools for Edinburgh. This is an exciting and radical proposal that puts local people and in particular pupils first. While Public Private Partnerships have successfully delivered hundreds of new schools throughout Scotland it is time to look at alternative approaches that will bring added value to building new schools.

The first advantage of the Local Trust approach is the ability to introduce a democratic board structure which will involve the local community. Local representatives of the school board, teachers, pupils, community councils and representative neighbourhood organisations as well as local councillors would make up the majority of board members. It is important the board is not only representative – but seen to be representative - with no one organisation or group being in the majority. This arrangement will promote the principle of local ownership and allow for local scrutiny at each stage of the school’s development and construction.

Other individuals with specific skills and knowledge could also be invited on to the board at the discretion of nominated members. It would also be advantageous to appoint an independent chair to oversee the running of the trust, to ensure its impartiality.

The board would be responsible for all aspects of the development of the new school. It would specifically be responsible for,

The design of the school

Ensuring the school and the wider community is consulted

Developing and submitting the planning application

Ensuring funding is in place before the start of the construction phase.

Funding would be a combination of receipts from sites and developers profit from building on the site, prudential borrowing and support from the Scottish Government as a precursor to the Scottish Futures Trust.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 19 Feb 2008, 21:56

From today's EN:

Foulkes calls for pledge on crumbling schools

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 20 Feb 2008, 21:34

From today's EN Letters Page:

Porty isn't alone in needing a school

DO the people of Portobello really believe they are a special case?

In her letter of February 18 Diana Cairns suggests that if the Edinburgh City Council manages to scrape together the £40 million or so to build a new Portobello High School, on a piece of land it already owns, then to quote "The land belongs to the people of Portobello, who would have to be financially compensated via the common good fund for its loss".

So, Portobello gets a brand new school, which would no doubt be the envy of other area of the city that also need new schools and the people of Portobello want compensated for the privilege. Has the world gone mad?

If everyone across the city were to take such a perverse stance where would it stop?

The very idea that the council should compensate people for actually improving amenities should be stopped dead in its tracks. It is ridiculous nonsense.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 21 Feb 2008, 21:09

From today's EN Letters Page:

Let's see positive approach for Porty

DIANA CAIRNS can be reassured that her claim for compensation for the loss of so-called common good land could be met by the savings generated for the city's council tax payers by a new high school.

Public money is currently being wasted on maintaining a building that's unfit for purpose, to ensure it can meet the most basic of health and safety standards.

This attitude – and its focus on placing financial and legal hurdles in the way of a new school – forms a stark contrast to the positive vision for a true community school expressed by the children and teachers of PHS in their DVD.

Not once do any of them call for compensation for the adverse conditions in which they have to work and study. They discuss their vision for a school on the park. One where thousands upon thousands of children and all members of the community will benefit from the facilities a new school can provide.

We were expecting our councillors to vote today to begin the process of building the new school on the park. The high school children have set out an exciting future for Portobello. Let's hope their positive approach is listened to and acted on by our local representatives.

Jackie Brock, Marlborough Street, Portobello

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 21 Feb 2008, 21:57

Spotted by PPAGwatch on their website today:

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
Following an appeal on a refused FOI request the information commissioner has ruled that the council should supply us with the council's original legal opinion that there was "no legal impediment to building on Portobello Park".

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 22 Feb 2008, 18:02

The Council Budget for 2008/9 includes:

£33million to rebuild or refurbish all five schools in the ‘Wave 3’ scheme, with £16million of that allocated over the next three years. The Council is completing feasibility studies and will work with the Scottish Government to look at current and potential funding mechanisms.

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 22 Feb 2008, 18:11

Mad-perverse-ridiculous-nonsense- what an unerringly accurate description and Ms addison is not even from PORTOBELLO.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 22 Feb 2008, 18:33

Full details of Ms Cairns' FOI judgement can be found here:

http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Uplo ... 2-2008.pdf

Post by **wangi** » 22 Feb 2008, 20:07

Bob Jefferson wrote:Full details of Ms Cairns' FOI judgement can be found here:

http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Uplo ... 2-2008.pdf

Which of course is a read bore to read, and is the process rather than the information itself. So, does anyone have a copy of the information itself now?

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 22 Feb 2008, 22:35

Well the Council has 45 days from 10 January to supply the information and I don't imagine it's top of its priorities, but I'm sure PPAG will publish anything that they think is to their advantage.

However, given that

the Council has to a significant extent disclosed the substance of the legal advice contained in the documents requested by Ms Cairns in support of its position on this matter

I wouldn't anticipate anything particularly new or exciting from a few internal emails.

I wonder if we should be claiming some retro compo now for the football changing rooms.

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 23 Feb 2008, 11:04

You mention the possibility of compensation for the 'people of portobello' I do wish you could be a bit more dcc positive and to quote 'the people of portobello HAVE to be financially compensated' - there is no room for doubt and unlike you, Diana speaks on behalf of the vast majority of the people of Portobello. Who as far as I'm aware have never thought about, let alone spoken about being financially compensated for having £40 million of our fellow citizens money being spent on a new school for our lifeblood.

I reckon we are in for a substantial windfall for the councils grandiose decision to build changing rooms on the Park, must have cost us more than £100k and only get about £3k per annum from football pitch revenue

The filthy council bastids are owe us big time. And not only that, if it were not for the golf clubhouse already being there the changing rooms would have been the 1st precedent for building council facilities on this piece of supposedly common good land. I am currently in the process of establishing whether there is any visual impediment to those buildings being there?

Surely the Friends of Park Avenue action group don't need an FOI request? Why not just look out your bay windows and see the two council buildings that have been built on the Park? Then maybe they may wish to consider the muckle great Shopping Centre, Princes Mall, which is built on land that actually is Common Good. Then they may wish to consider the Scott Moument, which is built on CGL and then the house thats built in Princes Street Gardens, The schools on neidpath grazings, and so on.

Edited and abridged

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 25 Feb 2008, 11:46

Letter from Ken Aitken, chair of PHS Parent Council, to Cllr Marilyne Maclaren, outlining a timetable and action required to deliver a new school by 2012.

Dear Marilyne

I am writing on behalf of the Parent Council to welcome the important commitment shown by you and your fellow Councillors in yesterday’s Budget towards rebuilding and replacing the wave 3 schools in Edinburgh.

We are pleased that the urgency of the situation facing Portobello High School and others has been recognised and that there is now funding available to kick start the process of replacing these schools.

It is now critical that things are kept moving so that the Council is well placed to take advantage of any funding stream that becomes available from Government in the future.

We believe that in Portobello’s case, there are several areas in which real early progress can be made, while details of the full funding package are hammered out.

We want to work hand in hand with the Council every step of the way on these matters, to keep the pace up and to ensure that there are no further damaging delays which could prevent another generation of children from fulfilling their potential.

You may remember the timescale that we have set out on previous occasions which is not generous, but reflects estimates given to us by council officials.

March/April 2008 - Development of a project delivery model

May 2008 - Place OJEC invitation for design team

Q2/3 2008 - Prepare legal case and submit to Court of Session petition to confirm that use of common good land for a school is admissible as previously expressed by Court

Q4 2008 - Appoint design team, commence design process

Q3 / Q4 2009 - Submit planning application and final fully costed business plan to Scottish Government

Easter 2010 - Planning approval granted

Easter 2010 - Tender building works

June 2010 - Scottish Government Approval

October 2010 - Building work commences

August 2012 - New School Opens

With this timetable in mind, the Parent Council of Portobello requests a meeting in early March – before the Easter holidays – with yourself, the Head Teacher and key officials charged with driving forward the rebuild of Portobello High School.

At that meeting we would like to discuss:

The detailed timeline for a new Portobello High School , from March 2008 onwards including the Business Case submission, legal case and planning and design process.

Funding mechanisms including but not exclusively the Scottish Futures Trust, for example prudential borrowing, Not For Profit Trusts etcetera. The Scottish Government's consultation on SFT clearly states that LA’s shouldn't have to wait for the SFT to be set up, they should not lose momentum and should look at preferred variants of PFIs especially Non Profit Distributing Models to deliver capital projects such as schools meantime.

Our proposals for community involvement and other means of the Parent Council and other community groups supporting the Council’s proposals and the business case submission to the Scottish Government.
We would then like to agree the programme and ask you – or your officials – to present it at an open meeting at PHS for all parents of primary and secondary school children in the catchment area of PHS in late April/ early May.

Once again, I would like to congratulate you and your colleagues on the outcome of today’s Budget and look forward to hearing from you shortly regarding a suitable meeting date.

Yours sincerely

Kenneth Aitken
Chair of Portobello High School Parent Council

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 25 Feb 2008, 13:50

From Maureen Child's most recent newsletter:

Progress on Portobello High School and St John’s Primary School

The Council Budget has committed just enough money to build Portobello High School alone, but the wording pledges to rebuild or refurbish all five ‘Wave Three’ schools, including St John’s. That said, the Lib Dem/SNP coalition has not allotted any revenue funding for feasibility studies, or to take the schools to ‘Stage D’ of the planning process. Not one pound of the one-off money they committed can actually be spent until there is a clear funding package in place.

I would have preferred if the Council had accepted the proposal I made, during the Budget debate, which would have taken all five schools to Stage D planning stage by the time we were able to start building. My suggestion was not accepted. We now need to ensure the Scottish Government is pressed very hard indeed to come up with money for our two local schools, in particular. We need to ensure that the Council keeps the momentum going for the new or refurbished schools and the investment in the current buildings keeps them fit for our school communities to work in. The toilets at Portobello High would be a good start. I thought work on them was promised soon!

tom nimmo · Post by **tom nimmo** » 26 Feb 2008, 13:48

Just thought I would sneak a glance at Bob Jefferson's diary, oops, sorry, I mean talk porty. Cash pay outs for the people of Portobello to compensate for getting a new school and losing a public park seems far too complicated to make any sense to me. Actually lots of things don't make sense to me but it's forums like this that encourage people like me to express opinions. No wonder Porty is so annoyed about this compensation malarky as he doesn't live in Portobello so will miss out on the cash windfall we are all to receive. Should this happen I will be totally middle-aged man and buy myself a Harley Davidson. Probably a black one. If invited, I will ride it to Porty's party when the JCBs move into the park.

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 26 Feb 2008, 15:58

tom nimmo wrote:. Cash pay outs for the people of Portobello to compensate for getting a new school and losing a public park seems far too complicated to make any sense to me.

It certainly makes no sense to me. Perhaps you should ask Diana Cairns who invented the concept? And as far as I am aware is the only person who has been upfront enough to alert us to the desire of some for "financial compensation via the Common Good Fund" , as per her latest Evening News letter.

Like you: to me it sounds very much like a pitch for personal compensation. And is apparently at odds with PPAG's fundraising Calendar etc, which was supposed to be spent on legal action to force the council to compensate the Common Good fund itself. (Which is an equally perverse notion) This is not the same purpose as raising money for personal compensation "via the Common Good Fund" for the "people of Portobello" ,is it?

Surely raising money (from the community) for one purpose and then looking to spend it on something else altogether cannot be occurring once again here in Portobello?

What the compensation for anyway, perceived drop in house values?

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 26 Feb 2008, 18:50

Welcome back to the discussion Tom, it's nice to have some company. Many of my posts, as you will have noticed, are simply links to relevant stories in the EN and elsewhere. I do this partly in case others have missed them but also because I have completist tendencies. As you know, I post links to stories and letters that are both pro and anti a new PHS on Portobello Park.

Beyond this, I obviously have my own views on the issue. I want the best state education for my children that Portobello can offer and I'm not going to be short-changed. I recognise that this affects the whole community, including many people without children or with children who will not be attending PHS and I can understand that their priorities might be different from mine.

I'm prepared to give up part of Portobello Park so that thousands of children for generations to come can have a better school with onsite playing fields. We are not losing the golf course. We are not losing the existing playing fields. We are gaining a fantastic community asset.

At this stage, those who continue to place obstacles in the way, in the form of legal challenges and claims for compensation, run the risk of appearing uncharitable and mean-spirited. I'm glad that there were no pupils from PHS at the Community Council meeting last night as I think they would have been very upset by some of the comments made during and after the showing of their film.

On a more positive note, at some point in the near future the community will have the opportunity to engage in the design process. Surely that's the time to put aside our differences and ensure that the new Portobello High School is something we can all be proud of.

tom nimmo · Post by **tom nimmo** » 26 Feb 2008, 22:27

I probably won't join the discussion Bob as all it is doing is creating two opposing camps and lots of bad feeling. I don't think the school DVD helped really as it seemed to me to highlight disorganisation within the school. Surely someone can plan classes so that pupils are not going from the first to the seventh floor without stopping at the floors in between. The main thrust of the argument seemed to be that pupils were not getting enough exercise yet one poor girl complained that climbing all those stairs was really tiring. If Stephen Reid thinks it is a good idea to have pupils bussed to Jack Kane for a single period of gym that can only last fifteen or twenty minutes then what is he complaining about? Surely only double gym periods should be at Jack Kane. The school was designed with masses of space outside but this has been turned into a car park for the teachers so no wonder the kids can't run about and play football etc in their break times. I agree that the school is a decrepit old building and well past it's best but I don't want Portobello park to be a venue for it's replacement. I am well aware that some people want the community council members to cast a vote either for or against the school in the park and that others are set against this. The promise I make to you Bob is that if a vote is asked for and I am still representing our residents association, I will ask the residents association members for their opinions and I will cast my vote with the majority - whichever way that goes. Can I count on your help to deliver the question sheets when the time comes?