New Portobello High School - on going issues

[Pal of Porty]

[Bob Jefferson]

[Porty]

[wangi]

admin: Guys, have split that wee tangent off to .

[Porty]

[seanie]

[Porty]

[Porty]

Succintly put-4th letter down.

[seanie]

Refurbishment tends to be disruptive, less cost-effective, with less cost-certainty and with higher on-going costs. That's not to say it's necessarily a poor option but I'd understand if the Council were wary.

Malcolm Fraser's a decent architect so he may have come up with a good scheme for Boroughmuir in architectural terms, but the Council will have more experience of this type of project so they might take some convincing.

That the St John's school board proposal was being touted as 'considerably cheaper', rings alarm bells for me. That doesn't strike me as credible given what I've read about St John's. With the amount of work required I wouldn't expect a refurbishment to be significantly cheaper if at all.

[Porty]

Are there issues around procurement? For example; lets say the council tendered the planning and design contract for all 5 wave 3 schools and then St John's come along with their own plan. What implication would that have? Especially if there was a significant cost difference.

[seanie]

It's really up to the Council as to whether to take these alternative plans seriously. They're the ones that are responsible, for education, the schools and the finances (capital and revenue), and so they have to satisfy themselves as to what course of action to take.

I could knock up a scheme for PHS myself. The Council wouldn't have to pay me any attention.

[seanie]

As far as procurment goes, since PPP or NPDO don't appear to be progressing at the moment, it'd probably be easiest to go down the traditional route; treat each school as an individual project with a separation of design and construction. I think you tend to get better results that way.

[Porty]

I definitely read somewhere that schools bringing their own schemes forward were cuaisng some sort of commercial conflict of interest. However, i don't know which parties any conflict would be between or what it may be?

[seanie]

I don't really see how a 'school' could bring a scheme forward in any meaningful sense. They might come up with something to persuade a Council to go down a particular route, but at the end of the day the Councils have the corporate responsibility. The schools belong to them afterall.

[Porty]

[seanie]

[seanie]

[Porty]

[seanie]

[Porty]

You got to love how desperate some are getting over on the EN comments page- their bums are squeaking:

"52 I claudia,10/12/2008 11:59:33
What is really motivating local businessman Steven MacIntyre to be so vocal about the new school? We must pray his next venture isn't into building either on the lucrative land the council will be selling off or the new high school. Anyone remembering him in one of his past lifes as an Estate Agent will remember the story about selling his mother in law a house and the back wall fell down. "

I was never involved in any sale to my in-laws or any other family member for that matter.

In reality my in-laws bought a house, in John Street almost 25 years ago and they are still there. They bought it on a strong closing date and I wasn't selling it- some lawyesr up in Edinburgh were. They lived in their previous house for about 30 years.

I think what they mean by the wall falling down is this: it is a lower villa and instead of taking the internal staircase out during the conversion- the previous owners just built a cupboard around it. So when you opened the door you walked straight into a staircase that didn't go anywhere.
It was a tremedous waste of space and they decided they wanted to remove it and create a shower room. They got a quote for the demolition and I said that's ridiculous- I will knock it down, Which I did, breaking 3 sledgehammers and loads of sweat. i did it in one evening.

However, what I had not realised: it was a structural staircase, which is probaly why they left it as is and there was a possibility the structural integrity of the house was at risk. The upstairs neighbours were understandibly annoyed. The banging was terrible.

Anyway it got sorted by professionals and has been a shower room for more than 20 years. They love their house.

admin: small edit

[seashell]

Charming! Type of comment that should be removed, I'd say. Possibly litigious.

What's the link, Porty???

[Porty]

[Pal of Porty]

[seashell]

[SoupDragon]

[Porty]

[Bob Jefferson]

[Porty]

[Porty]

[wangi]

[seanie]

[Bob Jefferson]

[Porty]

[Maria]

I first heard the good news when Cllr Hawkins announced it tonight to the Brightons and Rosefield Residents AGM. I'm delighted that soon all secondary school pupils in Portobello will have excellent educational facilities.

I am disappointed, however, that St John's have found themselves in 3rd equal position.

[Bob Jefferson]

What I read about St John's in the press release made little grammatical sense, apart from anything else, but the gist of it seems to be that the Council isn't persuaded by the school's preferred option of a refurb and want to postpone that decision until such time as funding is forthcoming.

My impression is that the Council would prefer a re-build and if PHS is definitely going on Portobello Park, as seems to be the case, then this would make a lot of sense.