Futuristic home for Donaldson's

A derelict factory will be bulldozed to make way for the purpose-built school in Linlithgow provided a detailed planning application is approved by councillors.

The deaf college plans to move there when its leaves its A-listed home in the west of the city.

The state-of-the-art new school, which will be home to 75 pupils and dozens of staff, features a swimming pool and games hall and residential accommodation for pupils who live outside the Central Belt.

The college, which won outline planning permission for the project last month, hopes the new building will be completed on the nine-acre site by summer 2007.

The sale of its existing building at West Coates - for a reported 15 million - will help pay for the new school at Preston Road, although college chiefs are also looking for funding from private sources.

Around 90 staff including teachers, carers, speech and language therapists, educational audiologists, medical experts and Scotland’s only deaf studies department will be based at the new school in West Lothian. Donaldson’s College principal Janet Allan said: "We are delighted with the design and pleased that we are in a position to offer the youngsters a 21st-century purpose-built school.

"The existing school has a lot of tradition, but the information technology and acoustic needs have moved on.

"This shows the confidence of Donaldson’s as a lot of special schools have closed. It is not our intention to close. We are looking forward to less maintenance, and heating and lighting costs.

"The existing college is a beautiful building, but this will be better for the children."

She added: "It is a big site with a beautiful outlook.

"There is a rural feel to it, but it is close to the community. It is on the Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line and on the M8 so it is well situated. It will cut travelling times."

Residential accommodation for around 30 youngsters who live too far away to travel to and from the school every day during the week will also be built, complete with en-suites, she said.

Donaldson’s bosses hope to secure detailed planning permission in the summer, with the new building completed by the end of 2007.

A spokesman for JM Architects, who drew up the plans for the site, said: "The new Donaldson’s College presents a great opportunity to develop a world-class environment for the teaching of deaf and speech and language-impaired pupils from all over Scotland.

"The new building will be designed in close collaboration with staff and pupils to accommodate the curriculum which Donaldson’s has developed to meet the needs of its pupils at nursery, primary and secondary levels, along with their continuing commitment to national priorities of raising attainment and social inclusion.

"The selected site offers unique opportunities in terms of setting and potential for engagement with the landscape."

Peter Wilson, director of the Manifesto Foundation for Architecture at Napier University, said the new complex would be a vast improvement on the existing Donaldson’s College.

He said: "If they are able to take the cash from Cala Homes, the new owner of the existing school, and develop a state-of-the-art purpose-built facility that meets the needs of deaf children then that is fantastic.

"The current building is inappropriate for their purposes. They racked up the bills. It is expensive to heat.

"It is good to see a modern educational building which is not part of the PPP."

The existing Donaldson’s College building is set to undergo an 80m transformation with 63 luxury flats created inside.

A further 72 futuristic homes are planned in a crescent shape behind the building.