Extending ..already!
Politician slams council’s ‘lack of foresight’
South Lanarkshire Council is seeking an “absolutely ridiculous” seven classroom extension for a primary school that opened just four years ago.
However, when Cambuslang’s Newton Farm Primary was constructed, short-sighted school chiefs insisted it would provide suitable capacity for the area’s young children.
Despite these claims, the council was forced to fork out £500,000 for two mobile classrooms to cope with demand, subsequently admitting that pupil numbers had exceeded expectations.
Now the local authority is likely to be shelling out millions more to add a two-storey extension to the school.
A planning application submitted last week revealed the plans will involve adding seven classrooms to the north east gable of the facility.
The Reformer understands that some parents have already expressed reservations that a significant portion of the existing playground will be used to create the new classrooms. Additionally, there are concerns whether the new extension will be big enough to accommodate the anticipated influx of pupils from nearby housing estates currently under construction.
The application has been slammed by the Labour politician James Kelly, who said: “It is absolutely ridiculous that Newton Farm Primary only opened its doors to pupils just over three years ago, and already the council is seeking to make extensive renovations to it in order that it can accommodate the necessary amount of local families.
“For years the council has allowed an expansion of housing throughout Cambuslang, and alongside that the population of our community has grown quite considerably.
“This is not the first issue that has arisen in terms of appropriate services and facilities not been brought about fast enough to keep up with the demand of the continuously increasing local population.
“Clearly lessons were never learned from the debacle of extending Hallside Primary, and once again the council is having to play a panicked catch up rather than preparing our schools in advance. The lack of foresight from the council, despite the clear signs that this problem would arise, has meant money has been wasted. “
A spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council said: “The Newton Community Growth Area has been a tremendous success in terms of housing development and the building of family homes.
“The council using the national household projections at the time built a brand new primary school in the area with capacity to extend if necessary.
“The new Newton Farm Primary School was designed to accommodate a large extension should this be required. The seven additional mainstream classrooms proposed within this new planning application would bring the school up to 21 mainstream classrooms in total.
“Education Resources have assessed that this level of provision is the maximum capacity for the school site to continue to provide the required external play, dining, PE and assembly facilities required.”
The local authority has not ruled out potential changes to catchment areas in the future. Some other schools in the region, such as Hallside Primary, are currently under pupil capacity.
The council spokesperson added: “In addition to the proposed extension, the council will also consider future catchment changes to maximise the use of classroom accommodation in our other new adjacent primary schools.
“If this is the case, we will seek the views of pupils, staff, parent/ carers and local residents on any proposed alteration to primary school catchment areas, through a statutory consultation process to ensure children continue receive the highest quality of education in our new school buildings.”
Two years ago the council had to build an extra five classrooms for nearby St Charles’ Primary, which had only been built in 2011.
Once again the council is having to play catch up rather than preparing our schools in advance