West Linton school plans are revised

Kate Smail • Published 3 Dec 2010 09:30 1 Comment

WEST LINTON residents say they are shocked by the council's u-turn over plans for the village's new primary school.

Villagers learned last week that Scottish Border's Council have thrown out original plans to build the new facility on the South side of the existing school, and instead want to site the school to the north - meaning the loss of the playing field.

The revised design has angered some sections of the community, who have accused the local authority of completely disregarding the views expressed at a consultation about the project earlier this year.

Margaret Hogg, whose teenage son regularly uses the playing field for sport, said: "The playing field is the centre of all sporting activities in the village - where will people go once the new school is built?

"I'm very upset by the way this has been done - we thought the plans were great as they were, and then out of the blue the council has changed them.

"Why bother consulting with the people about what they want if they just completely disregard it anyway?

"It feels like SBC are rushing these plans through so that we don't have time to object."

And Chair of West Linton Community Council, Margaret Harrison, said the proposed changes came as a shock to her as well.

She told the Peeblesshire News: "This has all come as a complete surprise to myself and the rest of the community council.

"We don't know where these changes to the site have come from. I'm sure there are some people who do prefer the new position of the school, but when residents were consulted earlier in the year the majority of people said the south site was their favoured spot."

However, Steven Renwick, Project Manager, said the new design and position was necessary if the school was to meet the benchmark set by other new facilities in the area.

He said: "As a Council we have set ourselves a very high quality benchmark with our recent new primary and secondary buildings and we needed to make sure that we continued to reach this expectation with the new school in West Linton."

And while Mr Renwick accepts the revised plan for the school has come as a shock to many, he has asked people to view the new design for themselves at a public exhibition.

He said: "I know that this revised proposal is different in many ways from April and in our view overcomes the hurdles that a south layout presented. The team firmly believe that this revised proposal will provide the village of West Linton with a building that reaches this high benchmark.

"I would like the community to come along to the exhibition on December 2 so that the design team and I can explain our proposal."

The revised plans for the school were put on display at an exhibition at the existing West Linton Primary School last week.

Tweet

This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 03 Dec 10

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

• 

  William j Earley
  Unregistered User
  Dec 4, 15:04
  Report comment

  West Linton towns people have their OWN benchmarks! West Linton has a beautiful town and is one of the most precious historic towns in the world. The students can stay in temporary trailers while the old school is being torn down while a new one is being built. The design of the proposed school is horrible. I wouldn't put my goats in there. Make them come up with a contemporary , modernest and green design. You Scotts have an excellent industrial design history. Showcase that design history that you have mastered! Penicuik library/ community center is a home run! Thats what West Linton needs. School,community center, library in one place with a beautiful design flanked by green space .
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 0

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

If you are registered with us, you can login here. If you are not registered, do so now.
Once logged in you wont have to complete word verification each time you post.

Prefer not to register?

Screen Name *required

Email (not displayed) *required

Usernames must be 4 - 20 characters. Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users can also take part in competitions and other features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.

Follow @peeblesnews