Great news for Portie!

The announcement today that the Council has had legal advice which means that it is possible to build a new high school for Portobello school on Portobello Park even though it is common good land is great news.

the key quote is:

"In terms of the scheme, no private finance or third party partner will be involved. Accordingly, no interest in title to land passes to any other party. No other party will accordingly acquire interest in title to land such as to constitute a disposal within the meaning of s.75(2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

The advice of Senior Counsel in their Joint Opinion is that the Council do not require the prior consent or authorisation of the Court under s.75(2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 to the proposed appropriation of part of the park at Portobello for the construction of a new Portobello High School."

What is interesting is that this is what we said two years ago based on what our legal officers had told us, but it has taken the SNP/Libdems two years and two QCs to get to the same point. Speaks volumes really!

On the subject of school buildings, I see the SNP are winging on about PFI allegedly costing more and that's because it involved private sector cash . This is the party whose so called Scottish Futures Trust is a private company who job it is to lever in private sector expertise and private sector cash... and the difference is...?