Capacity fears over £200m school

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Concerns have been raised on the eve of the signing of a £200m contract to build and manage new schools in Dumfries and Galloway.

Castle Douglas Primary Parent Council said it feels "let down" by the plans for its new building.

It claims that the growing school roll has not been taken into account in the number of classrooms proposed.

Dumfries and Galloway Council said the new school had "inherent flexibility" to cope with changes in pupil numbers.

The public private partnership contract to build nine new schools and carry out one major refurbishment is expected to be signed this week.

None of these proposed adaptations will detract from the education or personal development of any child within the school Council statement

However, parents in Castle Douglas said they believed they were having to "sacrifice" additional facilities in order to get the classrooms they require.

"The previous parent council repeatedly brought the disparity between the council/PPP team projections and the actually school roll to the attention of the PPP team," said a statement from the parent council.

"Reassurances were given that this would all be taken into account and it is clear now that this has not been the case."

They claim this has meant a loss in the promised provision at the school with the roll currently 346 pupils.

"The new school only has a design capacity of 310 pupils and other rooms face having to be lost and used as classrooms to make up the shortfall," said the parent council statement.

A total of nine new schools will be built in the PPP programme

"We understand that another primary school in the PPP scheme currently has a roll of about 245 pupils and it is to have 11 classrooms in the new school plus additional facilities.

"It does not appear to make much sense in our new school having the same number of classrooms, despite a school roll of about 100 pupils more."

A spokesman for Dumfries and Galloway Council said the authority was committed to providing "excellent education and educational facilities" for every child in the region.

"The schools being proposed as part of the PPP project are schools of the future," she said.

"They have a full range of facilities and for this purpose, when the contract was released, there was a built-in flexibility within the accommodation provision to take account of any increases or decreases in pupil numbers."

No different

She added that the school roll projections had been based on health board birth rates and forecasts by the Registrar General for Scotland.

"Castle Douglas is not being treated differently to any other school within the project as all of the schools have this inherent flexibility which may be utilised as the need arises," she said.

"None of these proposed adaptations will detract from the education or personal development of any child within the school."