Dundee City Council's Draft Capital Plan was circulated on Tuesday 24th January and will be part of the Budget meeting on 9 February.
The inclusion in the new Capital Plan of £1m for a 4 classroom extension to and refurbishment of Barnhill Primary School is welcome. I have been calling for this for a long time including raising it on the agenda of the Education Committee last March.
This announcement is some recognition that more accommodation is required at Barnhill Primary School to fit in the rising number of children within the school's catchment area in Barnhill, Panmurefield and Balmossiie Brae. Parents and carers with pre-school children in this part of The Ferry will be relieved that, by the summer of 2014, the school will be able to accommodate more children.
Of course it's really early days, and the detail in the report is thin. While £1m is welcome, this is only 20% of the money previously earmarked for future spending on refurbishing and extending the school. Bearing in mind that a similar amount of money was approved on a 4 classroom extension to Kingspark School at the Education Committee on Monday 23rd January, the refurbishment will be limited and certainly not on the scale of the extension and refurbishment at Forthill Primary School a number of years ago.
I will be talking to members of the Parent Council and the Head Teacher about this. I hope we will be able to treat this as a down payment and get the Council to increase the budget so that not only will more classrooms be in place but the other facilities in the school, such as the already overcrowded dining hall, can be extended to help keep pace with the rising number of children in the school.
