Extension at Pittencrieff PS as McLean is full up

The approval last week of 157 new homes at Pilmuir Works has left Fife Council having to come up with new ways of accommodating children moving into the area.

The catchment primary school, McLean, is almost full and can’t be extended while Milesmark has had a £1.2 million extension recently.

In the northern part of Dunfermline, that only leaves Pittencrieff and the pressures from housebuilding means it will be next to expand.

Shelagh McLean, head of education and children’s services, said: “Last week, the west planning committee approved the planning application on the basis that a solution to the educational capacity risk could be agreed.

“The solution identified at the committee was the provision of an additional two classrooms at a neighbouring primary school (Pittencrieff). This proposed solution will need to be finalised through legal agreement before the development can proceed.”

Pittencrieff PS is a Victorian building on Dewar Street that, last term, had just under 200 pupils in its eight classrooms with another 72 children in the nursery.

It opened in 1876 and its roll is set to increase, although the pressure could be eased depending on how long it takes to build the new Pilmuir Works flats.

A report to the committee said the site had not been part of the latest housing land audit “and so the proposal has not been incorporated in school roll projections”.

The developer, Byzantian, told the Press previously they were keen to start work as soon as possible and planning permission is now in place.

Dunfermline North councillor Helen Law said: “My understanding is if Pilmuir Works goes ahead as proposed, and that leads to a critical capacity risk at McLean, the next step would be to build temporary modular accommodation at Pittencrieff.

“No-one can say how fast the development will take place and there are a few variables, for example, houses are already up at Wellwood and a new primary school is to be built there, so that will be in the mix too.

“It looks like children from the Pilmuir Works development will go to Pittencrieff but I’m keen that we look again at catchment areas.”

Thousands of houses have been built in Dunfermline and West Fife over the past decade, which has put pressure on existing school rolls, and thousands more homes are planned.

As the Press reported on our front page last week, in addition to McLean, the council said there was a “critical capacity risk” at St Margaret’s with a £1.05m extension planned to cope with the expected rise in pupil numbers.

Carnegie and Milesmark have already had classrooms added on, and more building works are planned at Masterton and Touch, while two classes at Duloch have been getting taught in the public library because of a lack of space. The council said that a new £330,000 extension would also be required at Aberdour if plans for new homes were approved, but two applications for a total of 165 houses were rejected last week.

Cllr Law said: “I do have sympathy for the council officers because predicting school capacity and the likely number of pupils to come from particular developments is very difficult.

“I always refer to when the estate opposite the hospital (at Queen Margaret Fauld) was being built and a lot of the new homes were bungalows.

“The advice from officers was that bungalows tended to attract older couples and not young families and the first phase backed that up. But in the second phase it became full of families and lots of kids and that didn’t fit the expectations, or the past experiences, of the planners at all.”