Fight over an empty school hits taxpayers for £1.25m

The former school and its land had been earmarked for housing development

Now the old Dalkeith High School, which has not been occupied for eight years, will be demolished at a further cost of 450,000 after the national conservation body backed down.

The battle centred around plans by Midlothian Council to demolish the school and sell the land to housing developers. Historic Scotland wanted to incorporate the old building into the new development and blocked the demolition.

Since 2003, the B-listed site has cost the local authority 100,000 per year in security and lighting costs.

One insider said Historic Scotland had taken a "hard line" approach to preserving the 1940s building, which had baffled officials and councillors from all parties.

They said: "The council has a policy where buildings are vacated and virtually flattened straight away to keep costs down.

"The problem here was Historic Scotland put a block on this one, because of the listed status.

"Right from the start, back in 2002 or 2003, there was apparently an agreement between the head of Historic Scotland and the chief executive of Midlothian Council on the direction the plans would take.

"But when it came down to it, HS kept asking for more studies to be carried out. It's difficult to say how many, but the council had to pay for them."

The source added that eventually government ministers had to intervene.

They said: "It's been a major frustration for years. Ultimately the council had to contact the government minister, Fiona Hyslop, whose office arranged a meeting with Historic Scotland and the planners.

"Eventually they (Historic Scotland] withdrew their objection."

Former lord provost David Smith, who previously urged councillors to sell the land around the site and keep the school as a community centre, told the Evening News: "It's very difficult to accept that the council should have paid out so much money for a building that they intended to demolish.

"This strengthens our case for selling off the land around the building and keeping the school for community use.

"This money could have been saved and profits made from selling the land around the school."

The old Dalkeith High School, which is a B-listed building, will undergo work to remove asbestos, before being flattened this summer.

The red brick school has been empty since 2003 when pupils were transferred along with St David's RC High School and Saltergate Special School to form the Dalkeith 'super-campus', one of Scotland's largest teaching sites.

Demolition costs have also risen sharply due to the fact that asbestos was mixed in with cement, which was common practice at the time the school was built.

Housing giant Taylor Wimpey was previously interested in acquiring the site to build homes, but deals fell through due to uncertainty over the future of the building.

SNP group leader Councillor Colin Beattie said: "I realise Historic Scotland are doing their jobs here, but it's disappointing because this is obviously not money well spent.

"Now that the school is being demolished it opens up a lot of opportunities. I'm thinking very positively that we'll have a developer come forward."

Labour council leader Derek Milligan added: "This is a significant step forward in securing a better future, not just for the site, but for Dalkeith town centre.

"Securing the buildings has been costing the council more than 100,000 a year."

A spokeswoman for Historic Scotland said it had objected to the demolition since 2003 and had attempted to find a way to re-use the building. Following the discovery of asbestos, it had now finally withdrawn its objection.