A SENIOR West Fife councillor has warned education officials not to make the same mistakes as the past to solve the impending secondary school capacity crisis.

Councillor Helen Law said errors were made 20 years ago when primary provision in the Eastern Expansion was being determined and is keen to ensure plans to expand schools to cope with growing numbers do not see these mirrored.

Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting of the education and children’s services committee, she said the proposals were like “déjà-vu.”

“We needed three schools and just built two and look at the mess that ended us up in,” she said “I am really concerned. We had our fingers burnt 20 years ago when we made the same decision and it didn’t work out.”

As reported last week in the Press, the option which the council want to develop will see increased capacity being distributed around existing schools.

Councillors have now given the go-ahead for detailed proposals to be prepared for further consideration.

They would see remodelling and extension of Dunfermline and Queen Anne high schools to increase their capacity and any replacement building proposals for Woodmill, St Columba’s and Inverkeithing would incorporate additional spaces for the future.

Head of education and children’s services Shelagh McLean said this preferred option would resolve increased capacity issues brought about by housing development across the area.

“What that would mean is five schools would become slightly larger than they are but it would distribute spaces across the whole of the Dunfermline and South-West Fife area,” she said.

“It would also mean we could plan for extra capacity to be available in the actual areas where it was needed, exactly when it was needed.”

Ms McLean said although the “most obvious” solution would be to build a new secondary school on a new site, this would bring serious issues.

“As not all of the capacity would be required immediately, and developer contributions would align with the increasing capacity requirements, then construction of the new school would need to be phased over a number of years,” she said. 

Phasing, she added, would mean a full range of facilities could not be provided in earlier phases and some pupils could spend their entire secondary school career in a school which was constantly being extended and upgraded.

Dunfermline North councillor Ian Ferguson welcomed the idea of extending existing facilities.

“We are not going to come in with 1,500 new school kids,” he said. “The idea of a new high school doesn’t make sense as it is going to be empty. Expanding Dunfermline and Queen Anne feels right to me. I think it is the right decision.”