Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce will be happy to contribute to the cost of running these excess schools then??

How about stopping developers building 2 bed flats, and getting them to build more family housing?

This is the same man and organisation which is supporting developments which are ripping the heart out of Edinburgh and MSp Boyack who when not in opposition was silent on the issues facing what families are left.
www.eh8.org.uk

Another high-drama from 'labour' cooncil by closing high number of schools... as on other side same 'scottish labour' premier announced 'fun raising' plans about housing & schooling....

Literacy levels are at lowest in UK...

And no wonder that more than 25% of the City's kids go to fee paying schools. Breweries & drink up's springs to mind

How much does Ron Hewit get paid to come to the same conclusion any John Doe with a grain of common sense could've done for a fiver years before the council started approving development plans for thousands of flats?

Talk about a no brainer!

We 'will' start to have fewer families.

We already have!

Families LEAVE because a) there is so precious little housing stock in Edinburgh that is actually a house, even a terrace or semi-detached. It's flats, flats, flats. Ever tried living in a flat with young children, Mr. Hewit? I didn't think so or it wouldn't have take you this long to come up with this brilliant conclusion of yours b) the housing stock that is suitable for families cost a BOMB. Far, far beyond the means of all but the richest unless located in a dire neighbourhood with poor schools. c) things will NEVER change in Edinbugh. It's a tenement city, always has been. It's just that now the tenements have no communal garden, and the council doesn't allow the developer to put in car parks, either, so your kids can't play outside for all the traffic.

We agonised over moving out of Edinburgh.

Now, we wonder what took us so long.

Close the schools, house prices will go down, young families will move in and their will be a shortage of school places.

Leave the schools open, house prices will go up, and young families can't afford to move in, and their is an oversupply of school places.

Can't win either way.

When in opposition the LibDems constantly attacked individual local school closure decisions without ever seeing the bigger picture across Edinburgh. Now they are running the council with the SNP the chickens are coming home to roost. Maye now the LibDem newsletters will stop being so parochial and start facing up to tough decisions - but perhaps not...

6 Fuzzy logic

For young families to move in, family houses will have to be vacated by who exactly, presumably families.

Why would people with no kids move because the schools have closed, especially if the price has dropped.

1. druidh

"excess schools"

I think the consensus of opinion appears to be showing that not all of these schools are an "excess".

Also the "heart of family life in the city centre" point is a valid one, remove these central schools/nurseries and what are you left with, Starbucks?

Ah, yes, Hewitt. The self confessed media whore who thinks Princes Street is a good shopping street because it has views of the castle and who, despite holding no poll or survey of any sort, managed to claim that the C of C is behind the trams. - I wish he were under one, to be honest.

What a pleasant city such nice and freindly locals

Rankin in Edinburgh Totty Wee Fiasco.

For once I agree with George Foulkes. The recent immigration should be considered. We are probably only starting to see how many immigrants will settle down and start families. According to this 2007 article the birthrate is increasing sharply as a result of the children of immigrants:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=935812007

This will not be taken into account in the estimates used by the council which date from 2004.

Even those figures show that primary school rolls are set to start increase in 2010, and by 2024 are expected to be about 3,000 down on the 1997 school roll - considerably less than the current 5,500 deficit.

The secondary school rolls will start to rise in 2016.

I accept that a few school closures *may* be justified. For example, it would have been crazy to have kept open all the schools in the vicinity of the Royal Mile after much of the population went in the 1930s.

But I think there is a great risk of short-term thinking. If we close all 16 schools now, we may have to open or extend schools in 10 year's time, at considerable expense.

This lack of long term thinking is exemplified by pumping money into a school (Drummond) and then closing it when it's at 85% capacity. If a school of that size was big enough in 2000, why is it too small now?

Re Drummond, if Broughton Primary moves there, what will happen to BP's swimming pool? It is used by pupils from a number of the surrounding schools, and is used out-of-hours for swimming lessons.

My daughter attends at Drummond High and my son is at Broughton Primary in Edinburgh. The proposals indicate that Drummond would shut down, with pupils being sent to Broughton High and that the building would be used to accommodate Broughton Primary and St Mary's. This would mean that my daughter would have to travel 2and a half miles to school every day… a 5 mile round trip. The parents have a great deal of faith in the new Head Master… Mr Reid and I know how hard he works to improve standards. The school is also one of the most diverse in Edinburgh with pupils coming from a vast array of cultures. There are a total of 16 schools in Edinburgh facing the axe because of proposals put forward by the new SNP/ Lib Dem coalition.
It's starting to feel that the council is ripping the heart out of Leith, with the infirmary moving 6miles away and the proposed closure of Meadowbank Stadium. Now with the proposed closure of Drummond, the community is going to suffer.

I have always thought that The SNP was a party which had the best interests of the Scottish people at heart, but this decision has destroyed a lot of the SNP's credibility. I have voted for the SNP for the last 25years and indeed voted for you at the last election, and have canvassed for the party on two occasions.
To me the SNP has always been about local identity and the preservation of local communities.
I want to see an independent Scotland. I want to live in a country that provides opportunities for our children. Currently the birth rate amongst Scots is about 1.6 and going down and a large number of those leave for England or foreign shores. We need to stop the rot.
The SNP has only just got a foothold in Edinburgh and I for one was optimistic that the Nats would have a positive impact on the city.
Please, I implore the SNP's councillors in Edinburgh to stop and I urge them to step back from this decision. If they continue to back the school closure program in Edinbu

#8 Because they want to get on the "property ladder" and a house in the city is one step closer to a house in the city with a good school.

Wouldn't it be great if we had a council whose declared objective was to increase the number of children going to our schools, by improving them so that fewer parents sent their kids to fee-paying schools? Instead, we have one that wants to close schools and increase class sizes. Any guesses as to what the likely consequence will be?

Well, we're getting what we voted for. Whatever criticisms we might make of the previous Labour administration (and I made many) at least they sent their kids to state schools.

The current lot appear to be more concerned about building up their property portfolios than they are to building up our schools.

Mmmmm.... so the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce thinks we should be building more houses (no doubt on green belt land) to solve the problem of falling school numbers.

What lateral thinking! The mans a genuis !

(nothing do do with the potential profits of all the housing builders of course)

I agree that the council are forcing families out of Edinburgh and it WILL be a problem. I also agree that the impact of immigration has still to be fully seen. Where I live, there have been several new families moved into the area because it has a primary (Broughton) and secondary (Drummond) within easy walking distance. There are new flats going up in this area all the time.

I am getting angry now that I keep seeing this argument of underused schools. 85% capacity is hardly underused and if the council were so keen to pick up on schools operating at over capacity then they'd pick up that Trinity had something like 992 kids instead of it's capacity 950 kids. That could be 42 kids added onto Drummonds roll pushing up it's capacity. Are the council just going to keep cramming kids into schools not built for their numbers just so they can flog off the land for profit? It's about time they enforced their own capacity rules and enforced stronger rules on placement requests to prevent middle class flight threatening the viability of local schools and forcing parents who like the sense of community local schools bring to ship their kids half way across the city and disrupting family life.

Given that all these 'luxury apartments' are unaffordable to most local workers, too small for families and that the promised 'affordable housing' has failed to materialise, it seems inevitable that the powers that be have decided that Edinburgh's future success does not require family housing. As a consequence there is obviously a smaller demand for schools, playgrounds and sports facilities can be sold off.

Incidently the massive underground carpark being excavated at Fountain North is taking on water. Are we looking at a Marina for luxury canal boats?

http://www.gardyloo.org/

And here's where you get to live if you are a working poor family:

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1321292007

Would you want your kids having to put up with folk like this at school, too?

Yeah, the council SO cares about families in Edinburgh.

NOT.

The Old Town Community Council tried to argue with Mountgrange developers (the directort Manish Chande is also the director of Ron Hewitt's organisation), Places for People and the council to build afordable three (or more) bedroom accomodation in the Caltongate Project . We were worried about families moving out of the city centre, no gardens and green space being created and few affordable family homes. They told us "research" says families don't want to live in the city centre! They want to build one and two bedroom flats and fancy luxury town houses, They finally agreed tobuild 11 three bedroom homes - 2 of which would be affordable. When we asked for gardens Mountgrange told us Calton Hill was not far away! www.eh8.org.uk

Families have lived in the city centre since there has been an Edinburgh but without homes, schools or resources then families will move out.

It seems to me that the reason the council want to shut St Cuthberts is that they got all their stats wrong when they built the new St Joseph's and Broomhouse schools. Because they interpreted the statistics wrong that time, we are now having to move all our children from a local school that we can walk to, to one that is more than two miles away. How can we trust that they have it right this time!! I don't want my child to go to a school of 450 pupils I chose St Cuthberts because it was a small friendly school.

Does anyone at the council care what parents want??

Look at the report check the population graphs, see that we are at or towards the bottom of a ten year population dip. Info to 2024 trends upwards from around 2010 with secondary schools following approx 7 years behind, ie the number of years spent in primary school ! Surely someone can advise the Director of this PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

Also the current administration at Holyrood has promised to reduce class sizes ?, will this not require more not less class rooms ? To make it easy

Take 120 pupils - class size 30 = 4 classrooms
- class size 20 = 6 classrooms

Can the Council officials speak with elected government and possibly try some joined up thinking, you neve know it might work