Dundee’s rapid expansion could cause a school places crisis unless urgent action is taken, a city councillor has warned.
Laurie Bidwell, Labour’s education spokesman, explained that plans for new schools need to be made now in order to avoid overcrowding problems in the next few years, when a number of major housing developments are set to be completed.
These include 595 new homes at the future Western Gateway village, 150 homes next to Clearwater park in Broughty Ferry and a potential 50 home-development south of Clatto reservoir.
The latter will be discussed at a Dundee City Council development committee meeting on Monday, when councillors will vote whether to renew its planning permission in principle.
Mr Bidwell said: “At this time I cannot comment on the Clatto development.
“However I have voiced concerns in the past about other parts of the city, where pressures on schools are building up.
“As far as I know there is no new school planned for the Western Gateway development, which would involve hundreds of homes, and I did speak out about this.
“If there are large scale housing developments, this may well put pressure on local schools and this is an issue that needs to be kept under review.
“We need to make sure that there are enough spaces in schools near to the children’s homes so that that they don’t have to travel long distances and cross major roads.
“This is particularly important for primary schools.
“It takes a long time to provide a new school, from identifying a site to actually building it, so the council needs to start thinking now in order to avoid problems in future.
“We don’t want to have a situation like some parts of London, where children can’t get a place at their local school and have to travel.”
Portable classrooms have been announced as a solution to overcrowding in some city schools, such as St John’s RC School and Harris Academy.
At the time, children and families service convener Stewart Hunter defended the measures, arguing that the local authority does monitor school capacity.
He said: “This is a sensible and cost-effective solution to issues like learning space, storage and bathrooms.
“We carefully monitor the capacities of all our schools and the issues that emerge in these buildings.”
