Builder slammed for bid to ‘wriggle out’ of schools payment

Firm trying to avoid six-figure sum as village is not in catchment area

A major housebuilder has been slated for its bid to “wriggle out” of giving cash to an under-pressure Tayside school.

Developer Ogilvie Homes is disputing the £102,697 it is required to pay towards “at capacity” Monifieth High School – a condition attached to its planning permission for 22 homes in the village of Newtyle.

Staff and pupils at the Angus secondary are already struggling with a campus that is said to require “replacement or significant renovation in order to make it fit for purpose”.

Bosses at the Stirling-based builder, whose parent firm Ogilvie Group made a pre-tax profit of more than £5.7 million in 2018, have submitted an application to Angus Council with a number of justifications for avoiding the payment.

These include online council guidance stating Newtyle is not in the Monifieth High School catchment area.

Monifieth Community Council secretary John Thornton said: “They shouldn’t be able to wriggle out of it. The community council feel they should fulfil their obligation.”

Angus Council approved plans for

“

They shouldn’t be able to wriggle out of it.

JOHN THORNTON, MONIFIETH COMMUNITY COUNCIL

22 houses on land next to Mundamalla in Newtyle in June 2019, provided the company hand over £6,041 per home.

Five affordable homes in the development did not have a contribution attached.

Fraser Miller, the company’s land and planning manager, has argued the council has failed to show there are “accommodation constraints at Monifieth High which require mitigation” and that “the financial contribution sought is proportionate to the scale of the impact on all pupils”.

Councillor Beth Whiteside, SNP, said Monifieth High was already “at or near full capacity”.

She said: “I am disappointed to hear that Ogilvie Homes are attempting to renege on the agreement to make a contribution towards the secondary school infrastructure, which is a standard requirement asked of developers.”

She said parents in the village traditionally sent their children to “a secondary school in the Dundee or Monifieth area” as that was often where they travelled to work.

An Angus Council spokeswoman said its published planning policies stated firms building new houses in the Monifieth High School catchment area were required to make financial contribution “to help address capacity issues at the school”.

An Ogilvie Homes spokesman said: “It would be inappropriate to comment further while the application is under consideration.”

Picture: Kim Cessford. Monifieth High School was described as being “at or near full capacity”.