New Portobello High School - PPAG Judicial Review

[Puerto bella]

[Epykat]

[Chas]

[lg1726]

[Sceptic]

Have heard Special meeting of Community Council to be on 23rd /24th April, to date know not where.

Anyone else heard any rumours, or is it all being kept hush hush to deny Hoipoloi?

[Makaveli]

I was going to bring this issue up the other day lg1726, as being an Aberdonian, I have followed the above case closely.

Not too unlike the case with PHS the Aberdeen bypass is being held up by a bunch of NIMBY's who have gone through challenge after challenge just cos they can. There is one man at the heart of it called William Walton who is a lecturer in planning at Aberdeen Uni (here is his profile http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~wpg018/staff/per ... ge=waltonw - I hope you note that for one he is clearly not from Aberdeen and two he can't even spell the word brief!!!) who is treating this case like a person case study just cos he can. He has cost tax payers huge sums of money and doesn't seem to care.

Like our PPAG this lot are VERY unpopular up north and are in a very large minority but seem to think they are the majority.

Feel free to e-mail and let him know what you think of him if you so desire - w.walton@abdn.ac.uk

And yes I am pissed off that Hibs won today.

[tufty]

seashell has made a valid point, there is a possibility that the school will fail it's pupils dramatically and suddenly. I was teaching maths in an old building when the sash and case window suddenly blew in, narrowly missing the back of my head, the old heavy window was held to the wall by only the ropes that had caught. My class didn't learn anything else that day.
although CEC will not sue PPAG a young person will end up paying a price due to what they have forced to happen. I wonder if they can live with that knowledge, or will they simply ignore that too.

[lg1726]

Hi to fellow Aberdonian Makaveli, I lived there for 26 years and one son went to the Grammar School then we moved here and the other went to PHS - what a difference! I was chair of the school board at the time of the rebuild due to the fire and have a first hand understanding of the massive impact of the decant as a result of that on the pupils over the years that it took to complete and this has had a very profound effect on my views about the need to both rebuild PHS, but absolutely NOT on site. I cannot overemphasise the huge impact such disruption would have the pupils and would hate to see that happen at any cost and the loss of porty park is quite frankly, a small price!

As you say, there are a number of parallels in both these cases and i suspect that PPAG are watching this one. However, with one difference, so far there has been no move to reclaim costs from the Aberdeen NIMBYs. Oh, and last i saw you man was pretty much reduced to a one man band with most of the rest having peeled off along the way, as the legal fees rose no doubt!

[Makaveli]

I went to the Grammar and my older sister was part of the decant!!! I was lucky enough to be starting first year just after the new sections re-opened so it never affected me but I remember my sister being badly affected and feeling lucky that I was not part of it!!!

For the sake of the kids of PHS I hope they don't have to suffer a decant because of a few NIMBY's.

Yes the parallels are quite uncanny between the two cases - I just wish both would be settled the right way!!!

[Mark Cameron]

Makaveli may I just take this oppertunity to say "go on the Hibs"
However there are small matters like Hibs being in line to win the SC for the 1st time in 110 years or there are much more important Issues like the building of a school fit for 1400 porty kids.

[Makaveli]

For that comment I hope you make it to 111 years

But as you say it is much more important we get the school built

[lg1726]

there is only one way to settle this!! i suspect you would have been a contemporary of my older son Makaveli - it's a small world!

[Bob Jefferson]

drop_colour_kids.pdf

(357.95 KiB) Downloaded 222 times

[Porty]

[Epykat]

[Mark Cameron]

Porty did you ever find out what the story was with the traders taking down the drop the appeal posters?

[Porty]

Yes I did. The high heid yins at PFANS are currently trying to extract an apology and retraction from their counterparts at PPAG. If it is forthcoming, no more will be said about the matter. That's all I can say for now.

[Porty]

[portygeoff]

Sorry to be a bit slow but could you let me know when the next CC elections are please.

[Maria]

[Maria]

[Mark Cameron]

That's convenient for some - isn't it. Could this be challenged? What valid reason do our cc have to postpone (other than it says we can in the rules)?

[wangi]

Will split the specific PCC chat off to own thread in due course.

mcdryburn - to be fair this isn't Portobello Community Council specific, it's across the board I believe.

[Maria]

[Mark Cameron]

[wangi]

[tufty]

Looking at the big picture. Beautifully done, true and complete. Thankyou.

[wangi]

[Makaveli]

So what is the point of the PCC if they can't take a stance on issues? I maybe being stupid here but I really don't understand what the PCC is for then?

[wangi]

[Makaveli]

Is John Stewart a member of PPAG?

[Mark Cameron]

[Bob Jefferson]

As with PFANS and most other groups of this kind, PPAG will not have a formal membership as such. There will be a small core of decision-makers, and an important subset is obviously the petitioners, but beyond that all they will have will be a small email distribution group of trusted supporters. I rather suspect that John does not want the school to be built on the park but he will maintain a 'neutral' position, as will other members who don't want to be drawn into it either.

[Makaveli]

But as Diana Cairns is a vociferous member of PPAG one can only assume that she has a large say in the PCC e-mail that was distributed.

It smacks of conflict of interest to me and the refusal to commit to one side or the other surely makes the PCC look a bit daft considering that they 'take sides' in other local issues.

[seanie]

But they only take sides on important matters.

Like whether a tea shop should have 4 tables or 6.