School banner branded a road hazard!

Furious parents at St John's in Portobello are fighting the ruling made by council planning chiefs, who are thought to have investigated following a complaint.

Banners are regularly put up outside the school to promote fundraising events such as concerts and fairs, in line with other schools across the city, and parents believe it will hinder their efforts to raise much-needed funds.

The banner currently on display is promoting Sainsbury's Active Kids scheme to encourage people to donate vouchers to St John's to enable the school to purchase new sports equipment.

David Manson, chair of the parent council at St John's Primary, said a planning enforcement officer wrote to the school ordering the removal of the banner because it posed a "dangerous distraction to drivers' attention".

Mr Manson said it was a "farce" and that there were far more pressing road safety problems on Hamilton Terrace as a result of people double parking while dropping off their children at school.

He said: "Every school in Edinburgh is completely under-funded so parent councils have been using every means possible to try to raise money to plug the gaps in the school budgets.

"City development are trying to prevent us from advertising that fact. The planning department think it causes a danger to drivers along Hamilton Terrace. We have major problems with people double and treble parking - that's where the real problem is.

"Even without that problem, the thought of anyone driving round the corner and seeing this banner and swerving and killing a child is just fanciful. Does this mean every school in Edinburgh is banned from displaying any kind of banner?"

Mr Manson added: "If the school says it is not taking the banner down, we will be subject to some sort of enforcement process which would take on a legal status, so it would be the council prosecuting itself."

Parents at St John's have raised considerable money for the school over the years, including thousands of pounds for whiteboards and funds to upgrade the deteriorating school toilets.

The poor condition of the school - which is waiting to be rebuilt or refurbished - is well documented. Yesterday the News told how a deep clean had to be carried out at the weekend following an outbreak of a vomiting bug which affected around a quarter of its 400 pupils.

It is understood the council's planning chiefs were made aware of the banner following a complaint. A council spokesman said: "An advertisement is, by its very nature, designed to distract our attention and so placing one next to a crossing point outside the school gates has the potential to put children's lives at risk.

"There are other sites in and around the school that could provide a safer alternative."