Portobello Park Action Group Update

Portobello Park Action Group (PPAG) has been campaigning now for more than 2 years to save Portobello Park from development.

As you probably remember, in January 2006, the City Council announced plans to re-build Portobello High School (PHS) and St John’s Primary on Portobello Park/Golf Course, and to fund these new schools by building houses on the site to be sold to raise capital. Given the amount of public opposition at the time, the council conceded that they could not build houses, but in December 2006, they took the decision to push forward with their plans to rebuild PHS on the Park, and St John’s Primary on the existing PHS site, with the remainder of the existing PHS site and the existing St John’s site to be sold off for development. This was all to be subject to the condition that space was identified locally to replace Portobello Park.

The Council had no funding in place for the new schools, other than the planned receipts from land at the existing sites, and they were therefore considering PPP schemes. Plans were put on hold until under after the Scottish Government and local authority elections were held in May 2007. As you may have heard in the news, the new government are not in favour of PPP schemes, and therefore the council have been unable to secure funding. The council are now in the process of considering alternative funding mechanisms for the new schools, but in the meantime, there are other developments affecting the proposals:

The council have now recognised that Portobello Park forms part of Edinburgh’s Common Good Fund. This gives the Park legal protection, and means that if the council wish to use the park for a statutory function (i.e. education), then they need to get permission from the courts to do so. Over and above that, the accounting arrangements mean that the council must maintain the value of the common good fund, so if they effectively dispose of a common good asset, by using it for another purpose, then they must pay its value into the common good fund.

Secondly, a Protected View has now been recognised from the Hope Lane side of the park (near the football changing rooms) towards Arthur Seat. This is likely to present a significant planning hurdle to any new building, which would destroy that view.

PPAG maintains the position that the council, in 2006, made a flawed decision to build on Portobello Park. They failed to take into account the strength of local opinion against the plan, and they failed to acknowledge that the park is common good land. They conducted feasibility studies into the options for improving facilities at PHS, and they undertook a statutory education consultation, but these studies were not objective, and the conclusions appear to have been determined in advance. Whilst PPAG recognise that the facilities at PHS should be improved, it is our belief that the council have not given adequate consideration to alternative means of delivering it.

We are now keen to ensure that our local politicians are fully aware of local opinion, and therefore would like to ask as many people as possible to write to Cllr Marilyne Maclaren indicating their support for the preservation of Portobello Park as common good land. We have attached a sample letter. Please feel free to use it, or better still write one of your own. By letting the Council know what YOU want, you can help to influence the future of Portobello for the benefit of all.

Sample Letter