School buildings: 'The council is gambling on a softened stance'

Published on Thursday 7 May 2009 09:02

WHILE it is no great surprise that in the current financial climate the council has admitted that it is not in a strong enough position to replace the crumbling James Gillespie's High School, it is at least making some progress towards achieving this goal.

While some will no doubt choose to blame the current administration for its failure to match its predecessors' record of replacing or refurbishing schools that are no longer fit for purpose, the more enlightened will be aware the blame lies elsewhere.

It is the refusal of the SNP government at Holyrood to allow any further PPP projects to proceed which has brought plans for Wave Three of the city's schools building project to a halt.

And while there is no real sign of it providing an alternative funding mechanism through its much-heralded Scottish Futures Trust scheme the programme has remained in virtual limbo.

As it stands, firm plans have been unveiled to replace only Portobello High with James Gillespie's, Boroughmuir, St John's and St Crispin's all having to wait, although 13 million has been committed to keeping them wind and watertight in the meantime.

But without government help it will be 15 years before all five are replaced or upgraded. That is too long.

Clearly the council is now gambling on the fact that the government will at some stage soften its stance and make money available by announcing today that it is to spend 1.5m on design work at Gillespie's, allowing it to press ahead with construction as soon as a funding option is available.

It may not be a giant stride forward – but it is at least a small step. But whether the programme can truly be accelerated lies in the hands of the SNP, who to date have failed miserably to deliver on their manifesto promise of matching the previous government's schools rebuilding programme brick for brick.

PPP may not in all cases offer the most cost-effective solution for funding projects but in Edinburgh's case at least it worked and thousands of children in the city are today being taught in far better conditions that they could have expected without it.

Trams by the book

THERE he sits reading his book by lamplight. Watching over the mock tram that TIE has placed in Constitution Street while the city sleeps.

Do they think someone is really going to steal it? Or do they fear that due to the disruption experienced in Leith with the preliminary works that the tram has already become that unpopular that it will become a magnet for revenge attacks? Clearly so.