School facing demolition in 3 years gets £2m upgrade

Pupils and staff have complained about the state of Portobello High

Already 1.5m has been spent on refurbishing the lift within the eight-storey Portobello High School and on upgrading the electrics, improving the heating system and refurbishing windows and doors.

The money has also covered "essential" roof work and repairs to broken slabs in the playground. A further 500,000 will be spent on upgrades over the next financial year.

Pupils, parents and staff have been waiting several years for repairs to be carried out to the dilapidated Duddingston Road building. Despite this, the work has only just been completed, even though the school's shelf life is about to expire.

The 1960s school will be rebuilt on a new site in Portobello Park by January 2014, and the old school is set to be demolished afterwards.

Councillor Paul Godzik, Labour's education spokesman, said: "I do recognise that children at Portobello have been subject to terrible conditions.

"I think we do have to look very carefully at all council spending. If the school is going to be demolished within a few years, we have got to be very certain that it is value for money."

Green councillor Alison Johnstone added: "It's essential that all of our schools are safe for children and therefore it is important that we carry out required works at Portobello. However, I do have to question the many years of neglect that allowed this building to reach this level of disrepair.

"Let's make sure that in future realistic sums of money are allocated for maintenance."

Headteacher Peigi MacArthur said she was pleased that the upgrades had finally been carried out in her school.

Back in 2008, education chiefs prioritised Portobello High out of the fives schools waiting to be replaced under the "wave three" rebuilding programme.

A range of works were identified over a five-year period to ensure that the school could remain open. The original bill was estimated at 5.7m, but this figure has been reduced to take construction of the new school into consideration.

City education leader Councillor Marilyne MacLaren said: "We are only spending money on essential works."

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