Notes For Education Committee 11 May

"West End Proposal would deliver the Worst New Schools Estate Development in Dundee"

by West End Parents

Notes for Education Committee Meeting 11 May 2009

The following graphs show that the proposed site is too small and that this proposal should be rejected. Compared to any of the PPP schools, the site is considerably smaller and the area per child considerably smaller. While the PPP sites meet with the minimum standards in law, this proposal does not and would require special dispensation from Scottish Ministers. In other words, legislation last amended 30 years ago states that this proposal is below standard. It follows that it cannot be fit for the 21st century.

Figure 1: The proposed West End site is reported by Dundee City Council to be 1.27 hectares. This is considerably smaller than the PPP schools.

Figure 2: Capacities of the proposed West End schools will be considerably larger than the PPP schools, at both primary & nursery levels. (No. of primary classrooms in parentheses.)

Figure 3: When working at capacity, the proposed West End schools would have only 17.1m2 of site area per child. Even if the combined roll of the proposed primary schools was to be capped at 450, there would be only 22.7m2 per child. This is considerably less than at any of the PPP schools.

Figure 4: All PPP sites exceed minimum requirements for site areas to build these schools including appropriate playing fields and nursery gardens. [School Premises Regulations (Scotland) 1967 as amended in 1973 & 79].

Figure 5: Minimum site areas required by the regulations [School Premises Regulations (Scotland) 1967 as amended in 1973 & 79]. These regulations do not provide figures for colocated schools. The graph shows minimum areas needed if the proposal was (i) for a merger and (ii) for two separate schools. Required areas for colocated primary schools have been estimated as midway between these two cases. The three bars on the left refer to capacities originally provided by the Director of Education during the consultation period. More recently he has stated that the primary schools’ ‘capacity’ will be 450 since rolls will be capped at 450. The three bars on the right refer to this case.

The proposed site is smaller than the minimum needed by the regulations (see Figure 5). The regulations refer to the area of site usable for the schools. The total site area is reported to be 12,700 m2. This would be too small even it were all usable. In fact, approximately 1,600 m2 at the north end of the site is unlikely to be usable for the schools due to steep slopes. The protected trees are located at the top of this slope, well within this site 2 boundary. A further 850m is occupied by a listed building. Even if this building is to be demolished, this only leaves approx. 11,100 m2 of usable site area. It is clear that Dundee City Council would need to apply to Scottish Ministers for a special dispensation in advance of works beginning on the proposed schools. (As of 8 May no such dispensation has been requested).