The following 'indications' by a reliable 'council source' may help answer some of the questions on this thread. It will appear in the article on this topic in the Portobello Reporter, due out next week.
"THE Council has announced that it proposes building a new Portobello High School and St John's Primary on around one-third of Portobello Golf Course, and developing the present school sites for housing, to finance the new buildings. A new and larger golf course would be created on land in the Brunstane area, along with some housing.
Although precise details of the projects have not been established, a Council source has also indicated that they propose developing a possible further third of the park area for housing, leaving one third of the whole site as public open space. They said there is no hope in the foreseeable future of alternative PPP funding by the Scottish Executive, and that all money from the development of all the pieces of land will be used to build the schools and enhance sporting facilities in the area. They also indicated that the majority of local councillors would be against the inclusion of the 5-a-side pitches in the present proposal."
[For clarification, the council would not sell the land to a private developer, but would develop it through their own development arm EDI, sell the houses and use the profits for the proposed new buildings.]