Published on:
10
February 2022
Investment in educational facilities in Clackmannanshire is continuing with councillors agreeing to options appraisal work on both St Mungo’s RC Primary and Deerpark and Lochies schools.
St Mungo’s moved to a location within Alloa Academy to protect the safety of pupils and staff, after the original school building suffered from water ingress. A further technical report has now found that the old site is no longer viable for use as a school. An options appraisal to bring forward potential future permanent relocation for St Mungo’s will now take place, with a list of options brought forward to a future Council meeting. As is required by legislation, a full consultation will then take place which will include the entire school community and the Roman Catholic Diocese.
The Scottish Government has announced a further Learning Estate Investment Programme in 2022 where local authorities will be asked to submit bids for new schools. The criteria for the bid process includes the availability of capital funding, and the assessed condition and suitability of any existing building.
The condition survey work has identified that replacing Deerpark and Lochies with new schools would be a priority for a bid. Councillors have agreed to the immediate commencement of an Options Appraisal to look at the current site and possible options. .
Councillors also heard about the significant investment which has already taken place in Clackmannanshire’s school estate, with improvements completed at buildings including Park ELC, Bowmar Centre, Craigbank ELC and Tullibody South Campus.
Cllr Graham Lindsay, Spokesperson for Education said: “I was pleased to see Council agree this report, as we continue to invest in ensuring that our children and young people are educated in buildings which offer them the very best educational opportunities.
“The whole school community has worked very hard to ensure that pupils at St Mungo’s are well settled while they are located at Alloa Academy, and I look forward to seeing and sharing the progress made to identifying potential new locations for the school.
“I will also be interested to see the information that comes forward in the options appraisal for Deerpark and Lochies schools, and the potential for a bid to create new schools.”