New Portobello High School - PPAG/"Save Porty Park"

[Pal of Porty]

[seanie]

[Mark Cameron]

Does anyone have any idea how their fund raising efforts are going? If they get anywhere near the amount they need to put in a serious challenge is there likely to be the need for a pro-school group to raise funds to attempt to block this?

[seanie]

Not really. It's between them, the Council and the Court of Session. I'd imagine the Council will defend their position vigourously and will be seeking to have the petition dismissed at the earliest opportunity.

[Porty]

Is there evidence that a petition or any other legal process has begun? (PPAG website doesn't count as evidence)

[seanie]

The bulldozers have been at the park. It looks like speed archaeology.

[Porty]

Any pics?

[wangi]

There is one on here:-

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 3087147188

[Porty]

Thanks!!

Peachy.

[saveportypark]

Nice to see the council have dug up the park but can't be bothered to even make it look half decent in the meantime.
Wonder if we will end up with a half built school and a trashed park, right now the council's ability to make anything happen is seriously in question. If you are arranging a party in a beer manufacturing facility, I wouldn't ask Edinburgh Council to help.

coming soon to a park near you

[seanie]

You've come back. Excellent.

So why, in defence of their claim that the Council's 'traffic survey described the A1 as a minor road’, have the Portobello Park Action Group cited a document that a) isn't a traffic survey and b) doesn't describe the A1 as a minor road?

Why have the Portobello Park Action Group provided three incompatible claims regarding the document containing this claim?

a)“What Sean has in his hands has NEVER been printed by PPAG. It was on our facebook page for a very short time (as confirmed by Sean Watters and others), its' purpose was to get feedback from supporters”

b)“Sean is holding a poster put up around the park, it was not handed round schools “

c)“we used the image on a poster but the text was different - that is why I know the version Sean has did not come from us”?

What are the developments that the Portobello Park Action Group claim have been planned for Figgate & Quarry Parks in recent months?

Why have the Portobello Park Action Group said that “the council stand to make a significant profit from the sale of the existing school site to property developers but have not said how this will be spent” when the council has indeed said how any capital receipt will be spent; for capital investment in the school estate, specifically the remaining Wave 3 schools?

Why do the Portobello Park Action Group say they oppose development on any green space, when the Portobello Park Action Group have suggested Bingham Park, Jewel Park and Greenbelt land as suitable alternatives for the high school?

Why do the Portobello Park Action Group say it would be possible to build on the former Lismore School site without the loss of any green space, when that would mean moving the school from a site that's only 40% of the recommended minimum, to one that's only 20% of the recommended minimum?

How do the Portobello Park Action Group propose to fit a secondary school of 1400 pupils onto the site of a primary school built for 270 without losing any green space on Bingham Park?

When asking for donations for the Portobello Park Action Group legal case, why do they never mention to people that the established legal precedent is that permission from the courts is not required to develop schools on Common Good land?

Why do the Portobello Park Action Group never explain to people that rulings from the Courts of Session have established that, since the land remains in council ownership and is used to the continuing benefit of the community, schools are compatible with the Common Good status and no permission from the Courts is required to proceed?

Why do the Portobello Park Action Group state that “the Golf Course will be lost if the school is built on the Park” when the original high school sat close to the park quite happily for several decades?

Why do the Portobello Park Action Group state that “housing will be built on the course” when there are no such proposals and such a development would be incompatible with the Common Good status of the land?

Since the Portobello Park Action Group profess concern about “the possibility of children being knocked down by speeding vehicles on Milton Road”, why have the Portobello Park Action Group spent the last three years promoting Lismore as a better site, when that would result in a fourfold increase in the number of children having to cross it?

Why do the Portobello Park Action Group say that the school will result in the "loss of 25% of our precious parkland" when there are over 52Ha of parks in the local area, and the school and playing fields won't even take up 5Ha?

And have the Portobello Park Action Group found the Council’s traffic survey yet?

[Porty]

If you are arranging a party in a beer manufacturing facility, I wouldn't ask PPAG to help.

[seanie]

Was today not the day of the great park run?

[Bob Jefferson]

Was it? They kept it pretty quiet then.

[Bob Jefferson]

[Porty]

[portygeoff]

Just been looking at the PPAG site. It starts of with a lie about representing the 'significant majority' and the proceeds to list further lies as highlighted above. No wonder their support is dwindling. Lost the arguments but cannot accept it so resort to further untruths. Shame.

[Bob Jefferson]

[Lima]

Yes she is very lucky to be alive. Phew

If anyone was to be hit by a golf ball it would be from a distance so unlikely to cause any harm, never mind killed. If they were to be hit by a golf ball traveling at speed they would have to be close to the person swinging the club which would not be the case as the golfer would not take a swing if there was someone that close so is an invalid argument

[Lima]

[Franck]

I've been hit by golf balls a few times, sometimes a deliberate act of tom-foolery when I was younger with pals ( always at pgc) sometimes accidentally when playing golf.I can confirm it hurts like buggery, but I can also confirm I'm still alive.

I'd take a punt and say more people are killed playing football over golf so in effect, building the new school on football pitches beside a golf course is a sure fire way of reducing sport related deaths in the Portobello area.A new school on the park-a gift that keeps on giving.

[Porty]

Sheila may have a point. In decades of life threatening stunts, mutiple fractures, many operations, all wrapped up in a devil may care attitude. Never, and I do mean never, did Evil Kneivel choose to risk traversing a Golf course in his stunt bike.

[Makaveli]

I played golf the other day and looking back can't believe the unnecessary risk I took by going on the course without full body armour.

Dodged a bullet there!!!

[wangi]

-

[Bob Jefferson]

Come again?

[Mark Cameron]

Just noticed a link from the PPAG website to an epetition with a whopping great 800ish signatories - now is that what they're basing their claims of 'majority support fromthe community' on?

[seanie]

That's the petition from 2006, referring to schools and housing on the park. It's no longer relevant.

[Pal of Porty]

The argument of PPAG that they represent 'the majority' was blown out the water when more people wrote in support of the planning application than against it. Almost unprecedented in planning terms.

[Pal of Porty]

I note from Ms Coventry in her letter above she emphasises that despite being a Towerbank parent she is still opposed to building a new High School in the Park. The use of a PHS Feeder School in the statement could lead one to assume that Ms Coventy herself will be becoming a 'PHS parent', which somewhat contradicts previous statements from her, where she claims to be finding it difficult to support school fees.

[Porty]

Seems quite a few public school bods are deeply concerned about the safety of PHS pupils. We have recently had representations from FP's of George Watson's and Stewarts Melville. And the planning portal has an essay from a former Herioter, now PE teacher, who appears heartbroken by the loss of the park where his lifelong friendships were formed. Seems all his mates survived playing on a park adjacent to the Golf Course.
Amazing, isn't it?

Some parents of Holyrood kids are also amongst the most vociferous about the threat of the Milton Road to our pupils. Which is touching, considering their own kids have to negotiate the very same road on an almost daily basis to get to school. Do they care for the safety of our kids more than they do their own, I'm welling up here.

[wangi]

[wangi]

[Porty]

It is bitterly disappointing that the School will likely be delayed for a few months but it is not the end of the world. Just two or three years ago it looked very much like PHS would be further down the pecking order than Gillespies etc. It looked like there would be no money available in the forseeable future, we have come a long way. There is no reasonable grounds for believing that the School won't be built.

A "small group of local residents are trying to stop it" - is correct.

[Pal of Porty]

"Residents" is not the first word that sprung up in my mind to describe this group.

[Mark Cameron]

As you say Porty, a delay isn't the end of the world but it is frustrating as hell that a minority of residents can have this effect on the project.