Porty High School - Council lose appeal

[RyeSloan]

http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/education/portobello-high-school-ruling-council-ponder-next-move-as-park-plan-is-overturned-on-appeal-1-2523528

A few things strike me as odd

surely the right for a council to appropriate common good land is quite clear..it either can or it can't...how can the courts not get the right answer the first time around?

ECC has to be the most incompetent council ever created. It doesn't matter what party is in charge they seem incapable of putting together a functioning operation. Do they spend to much time on politics rather than trying to get a functioning council

This knock back has been coming for some time...the need for a new school, the biggest secondary in Edinburgh I believe, is now extremely urgent yet all along there has been no plan B at all...more incompetence.

It says a lot for the 'vision' of the council that the best they could come up with was to build on park land..while I have no doubt the overall benefit of a great school to the community would out weigh retaining the park as it is it's about time someone made the council understand that simply allowing more green space to disappear should not be the default option...they used the 'Quarry holes' for the new Leithy, allowed development on Hawkhill playing fields as well as the Royal High playing fields and at the same time have done what to improve the environment for people in these areas? Nothing.

Why was a joint campus not created with Holyrood High when that was re-built? That school sits on land that could easily have been used for such a venture without impacting the local environs too much.

All in all a sad indictment of the ongoing failings of ECC.

[Golden Bear]

Not so long ago there was a huge controversy in my local town when the Council (Scottish Borders,) decided that they were going to build a new school on Common Good land. Feelings ran high for a couple of years and a wealth of conflicting Legal advice was sought and obtained but at the end of the day the new School was built on the designated site.

We're now two years down the line and nobody is batting an eye lid.


I wonder if history will repeat itself in the Portobello High School saga.

[Hibs Class]

I wasn't that surprised by this latest ruling. I had regular meetings with education councillors and officials during the last administration, including the convenor maclaren, and i was repeatedly struck by how incompetent they were. Their often flawed decisions were generally railroaded through by some quite intense bullying. The more vocal maclaren became in promoting portobello park and dismissing the protesters, even bullying them by threatening to sue them, the more convinced I became that she knew the council position was fragile.

[Future17]

Why was a joint campus not created with Holyrood High when that was re-built? That school sits on land that could easily have been used for such a venture without impacting the local environs too much.

I think the locals in that area, the parents and children who attend Holy Rood and the Clubs who use Cavalry Park Playing Fields would disagree.

[Bizzle14]

I think the locals in that area, the parents and children who attend Holy Rood and the Clubs who use Cavalry Park Playing Fields would disagree.

Some classic games played on those playing fields.....KENNY'S BAW! Still makes me laugh :agree: