Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
New school to be built on blaze site
Councillors’ go-ahead for replacement St Dominic’s
I think the quality of the schools being built is tremendous Jim Logue
The construction of a replacement St Dominic’s Primary has taken a major step forward after councillors granted planning permission for the new school building.
Work is now anticipated to get underway on the new building – on the school’s own now- cleared former site, adjacent to Petersburn Primary – before the summer holidays.
It comes almost exactly two years after the previous school building on Petersburn Road was destroyed by fire in March 2015, with pupils having been taught since then in a wing of St Margaret’s High.
Council leader Jim Logue says he is “absolutely delighted” that the new building has received the green light, and said: “The aim would be for pupils to be in the new school in August or October 2018.
“Now that planning consent has been given, we move on to financial closure; and then I’d anticipate that builders should be on site before June.
“Building periods can vary due to lots of factors but for a single school like this and all going well, should be about 12 months. We try to go for new term times [for school openings].”
Councillors unanimously gave the go- ahead for the new school at their latest meeting, agreeing with planners’ assessment that the new building “is considered a well- designed and contemporary replacement for the former school”.
The “purpose-built campus” consists of three linked blocks arranged to form a courtyard space, with facilities including a nursery reached from the main entrance plaza, a two-storey assembly hall and dining room, and class bases in a learning block located in the former playground space.
Planning committee members also heard how its roof will be “punctuated by windcatchers and solar panels to achieve a low-carbon, sustainable approach to heating and ventilation”, while windows are “designed to maximise solar gain” and landscaping will include retaining existing trees and woodland.
Improved access from Petersburn Road is being created, plus a 58-space car park with a drop-off and pick-up loop, ensuring that vehicles are segregated from the school’s pedestrian areas and footpaths.
Airdrie Central councillor Logue, who was previously learning and leisure convener, added: “We’ve now built 41 schools since 2007 – we’ve learned a great deal over those 10 years with feedback from staff, pupils and parents about their designs, and I think the quality of the schools being built is tremendous.
“We’ve had a commitment to the Petersburn community to reinstate a brand-new, state of the art school for St Dominic’s.
“We appreciate the inconvenience of children as young as five travelling to St Margaret’s since the fire – they’ve done very well and the feedback I’ve received from the head teachers of both schools has been extremely positive.”
A new building for St Dominic’s had already been approved just a month before the fire nearly two years ago, as one of three Monklands projects in the current phase of the council’s Schools and Centres 21 upgrading programme.