Anger as pool left out of plans for £60m school serving 1,800 pupils

A petition has been launched calling for a swimming pool to be included in plans for the £60 million merger of Braeview Academy and Craigie High School.

A full planning application was lodged last month for the new East End Community Campus and included proposals for a floodlit 3G football and rugby pitch, as well as a basketball and netball court and a grass track and field area.

It does not include plans for a swimming pool, despite both the academy and high school sites having one.

Now a petition has been launched calling on the local community to support a pool at the new school.

The petition was started by community activist and former swimming instructor Stephen Massey.

He said: “I was a little bit disappointed to find out the most recent planning application didn’t include provision for a swimming pool.

“I want to highlight the fact that there won’t be a pool because I think a lot of people would be under the assumption there would be one included.

“Both schools currently have that provision, therefore if you are going to build a new building it should be a like for like.”

The planning application stated education officials believe there is “sufficient capacity” across schools in the city to support swimming provision.

All of Dundee’s secondary schools – with the exception of Morgan Academy – have on-site swimming facilities.

Mr Massey said many families living in the new school’s catchment area will be unable to afford the cost of regular travel to other areas of the city.

He said: “The school will be built to service in excess of 1,800 pupils so why would it not have a pool? At the moment the school pools will service primary school children from their associated clusters so where are all of these children going to learn how to swim?

“There is a lot of deprivation and a lot of people can’t afford to travel to swimming facilities in other areas.

“They want to make it a community facility but they don’t want the community to come in.”

“A lot of people can’t afford to travel to swimming