Yahoo News Dumfries parents lobby councillors ahead of vote on school relocation
A protest was mounted outside the council’s English Street headquarters yesterday with a demand that Loreburn Primary School’s “parent voice” be heard.
But hours later education committee councillors agreed to progress plans to move Loreburn Primary into the Minerva Building at Dumfries Academy.
Officials recommended the option for the 160-year-old school as part of the Dumfries Learning Town school estate revamp.
Now angry parents want a rethink as they don’t want to be “merged” with the secondary school – nor with Lincluden Primary, which had also been considered in a scoring system by officers.
Parents’ preferred option is to build a new school on the council-owned Langlands School site.
And they have hit out at what they say has been a “lack of consultation” on the proposals.
They are also querying why council papers promoting the recommended Minerva building move were only made public a week ago.
Mrs Heidi Wu, chairperson of Loreburn Parent Council, said: “A ‘co-location’ in Minerva building is effectively a merger since the full footprint is not ring-fenced for Loreburn usage and Dumfries Academy will continue to use rooms on the first floor.
“In addition, shared gym and dining areas is a merger and we have every confidence this will lead to one ‘superschool’ in due course – an outcome parents do not support and is therefore closure of Loreburn Primary.”
Committee papers for yesterday’s meeting state: “Based on the results of the option appraisal, Option 3i co-location with Dumfries Academy at the Minerva Building represents the optimum cost per benefit point and is therefore the recommended option.
“Members are also advised that the existing Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 process has been completed in support of this option.
“All other options would require this process to be undertaken again, as they provide significantly different solutions.
“This step could add around a further year to the overall timescales for option 3ii and option 4, before the outcome of the consultation process would be known.”
Parents have taken heart from the report which also shows that a new standalone Loreburn Primary School at the former Langlands school – which is in a state of disrepair – and Gracefield Arts Centre site would be “the suitable potential option for this”.
Key considerations, the report said, were that “the site sits within the existing catchment area for Loreburn Primary School and provides the necessary size of site to support a school of Loreburn’s size.”
The option would mean demolishing the existing brick and concrete at the Gracefield Arts Studios building in the centre but would retain the category B listed Gracefield Arts Centre, which would operate separate from the school.
As well as yesterday’s in-person protests, Mrs Wu wrote to council and education leaders, and to elected members.
She said: “There has been absolutely no engagement whatsoever by the council with the parent councils of either school ahead of this report being presented to elected members.
“Some of these options are entirely new yet there has been no opportunity given by the council for parents to express their views on them.”
Pointing out that the Minerva building is “an old building adapted but not designed for a modern primary education” she also said that green space is “incredibly limited and adjacent to a major traffic junction”, adding “with around 170 pairs of feet playing on it daily, difficult to maintain as such”.
She also raised concerns about families having to be dropped off by car when the Minerva building “affords no suitable drop-off space” which, she said, “poses serious safety concerns for younger children at the Irving St bottleneck outside Moat Brae.”
Mrs Wu added: “Loreburn Primary has a very mixed demographic of children many with special educational needs.
“It is important to take that into consideration as the ‘busy’ environment of the Minerva building will be difficult for many children.
She suggests the arts studio could be either accommodated in the ground floor of Minerva instead, or in the vacated Loreburn building, or in conjunction with Midsteeple Quarter, utilising some of the vacant refurbished buildings the project has created on the High Street.
