| Work on the 236-house site, just ouztside Dundee’s north-east boundary, came to a halt after the developers went into receivership in 2002 with about a quarter of the dwellings built.
A planning application has been submitted by a new developer for the other plots on the site and today Angus Council administration leader Rob Murray said if planning permission for the remaining houses is transferred, there could be implications for secondary schooling.
“Monifieth High School serves that part of Angus and we think it will be able to cope with demand from the immediate Monifieth area,” he explained.
“More houses are being built in the Birkhill and Muirhead areas, which are also served by Monifieth High, and we think we can cope with them.
“Then there’s the Ballumbie situation. Outline planning permission has been granted for more houses than have been built so far and if the permission is picked up by another developer and the houses are built, these children would be in the zone for Monifieth High.
“This is a situation we will have to keep an eye on. If the new houses at Ballumbie produce more children than we can cope with we would have to re-assess our secondary school arrangements for the south-west of Angus.”
Councillor Murray said the issue would also have to be addressed in the Angus local plan, which is still at the draft stage. He was speaking two months after his colleague, Sidlaw West councillor Frank Ellis, warned of a looming crisis over schooling for 12 to 18-year-olds in the south of Angus.
With more housing being planned for the Sidlaws and more than a thousand homes forecast for the Dundee Western Gateway, he suggested the three councils in Tayside — Angus, Perth and Kinross and Dundee — should get together to examine the case for jointly funding a new secondary school for the Sidlaws.
The three councils should co-operate, he believed, as they would all gain by being able to send pupils to the school. Councillor Ellis said the present arrangement whereby more than 100 pupils from Birkhill, Muirhead and Newtyle are bussed to Monifieth High every day was not satisfactory.
He questioned whether making as many, if not more, pupils undertake a similar trip from the western gateway area to Perth would be good for the pupils’ education and for road safety. |
